To Manduessudum

The first place of note today was Stretton Baskerville: somewhere named for being on the Street. Although naming a present-day parish, it isn't really a place any more, as this is the name of an abandoned medieval village. I didn't go looking for it (beyond peering over hedges) as the main site is two fields away from the road and there would only have been a few humps and bumps.

There a lots of abandoned villages here and there, but quite a few along the line of Watling Street. I wonder if the reasons I speculated about yesterday, about people not wanting to settle on the Street where it was a border, also left people to abandon settlements already there? There are a number of reasons why places might have been abandoned, and chief among them were plagues. Infection spread by travellers on the road might be another reason.

Fortunately I had a footway most of the way today, because more modern towns have grown up towards the A5, although still on side or another. Crossing Change Brook, the road is embanked over the stream. A car sales place on the right has many new buildings, but at its heart what might have been a roadside inn, its ground floor lower than the road. I must research this further when I'm finished walking.

One inn with a long history and which is still going is the Royal Redgate, the name indicative that it stood at a turnpike. I was hoping to call in, but arrived before opening time (noon) and wanted to get on.

At Mancetter I arrived at The Bull, a closed pub looking for new owners.

It sits within a rectangular fortification. Here is a visible bit of Roman remains, but it's not all of it. This a 4th century (i.e. fairly late) 'burgus'. I met up with Judy Vero of the Atherstone Civic Society, and we walked through fields towards river Anker, passing through the site of a marching camp, the earliest Roman presence. Then, crossing the river, and with the aid of a leaflet which Judy had given me, I wandered around the present vilkage of Mancetter, where the Roman fort had been. Unlike some other remains I've seen, there are few signs of ditches or ramparts that can be disentangled from natural slopes and later civil engineering, and the present streets don't follow a rectilinear pattern. There have been small excavations at various spots as opportunities arose, enabling the original fort to be traced. This is a tribute to the work of amateur and professional archaeologists, and to the Civic Society who have informations boards at key points.

Returning to the A5, I crossed the river again and came into Atherstone, an historic town with more old inns, Georgian buildings, and a milestone: 100 miles to London. I'm back to a town centred on the road, and a high street either side along it. It also has the signs pointing to Holyhead in one direction and London in the other: one of my original inspirations for this walk.

Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day; I'll resume on Tuesday.