All along the walk of Watling Street, I had been looking out for the old inns and pubs that have served travellers along the route: those that are still doing so, and others. There are very many: I could not possibly have found every one, and even of those that I saw, I can't write about them all. This is inevitably a selection only.
This first post deals with a few coaching inns. These would once have been regular stops for the coaching routes, and are distinguished by being able to service coaches. Usually that means a wide alley through the street frontage of the inn, wide enough and high enough for a coach and horses to drive through to stables behind. There would have been adequate stabling room to provide a change of horses, with both new and old ones to be fed and watered: such spaces are often car parks now. It would also have meant bigger and better rooms, for the higher class of travellers who were able to travel by coach. Those inns that are still going may still be offering those rooms.
Stony Stratford really was the best place along Watling Street to see some fine old coaching inns, mostly with huge signs stretching over the street to advertise their presence - but I wasn't stopping off here so I did no more than appreciate their street-facing architecture (pictured: The Bull).
In Towcester, I stayed at the Sarcen's Head, once known as the Pomfret Arms. It's one of those places you see in country towns which announces that the local Rotary Club meets there once a month. I happened to be there on that very day, which was a little unlucky for me as it meant a longer wait for my food and a very busy bar. To be fair, they did warn me of this, but with sore feet and needing time to write up my blog, I wasn't in the mood for searching out anywhere else that evening. It also has the distinction of having been mentioned in Dickens' Pickwick Papers. I suspect they're resting on their laurels a bit, hoping that will be enough to bring in the punters. The interpretation of Eggs Benedict at breakfast left much to be desired.
(I wasn't going to do hotel/food reviews here, on the grounds that I had principally selected my places to stay and eat on the sole criterion of proximity to my route, so it would be unfair to mark them on other grounds. But where I happen to have gone into a place which markets itself as an old coaching inn, and implies some quality, it seems to reasonable to say a word about them.)
The Red Lion in Atherstone is another one, distinguished by that 100-miles-to-London milestone just outside. The wide alley for coaches is now internalised, and is the bar and reception area, with a glass roof over. It's rather cleverly done, because you can see the former usage very plainly, but the space is effectively used for modern purposes. The place is themed around the Battle of Bosworth, with rooms named after various protagonists. I suppose for most visitors that doesn't seem too far away, but for me that was two day's walking ago, so seemed a bit remote. I would stay here again.
The Bradford Arms was a lunch break for me. It stands on a residual strip of the old road at Ivetsy Bank, where a modern improvement has lowered the road in a cutting (pictured). It seems to have been a coaching inn, but doesn't have the obvious infrastructure any more. It's the equivalent of the motor age: a place you would drive to. This was a good stop-off: home-made food rather than standard pub fare, and a landlord who could tell me a bit about the place.
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