The radio interview

I did a radio interview about the walk with Ian Perry of Radio Shropshire on the morning on 12 May - here.

A few pictures

I have now added a few pictures that illustrate earlier posts.

Completing Phase 1

Not being able to post pictures here has been annoying - not sure why, it's worked from my phone in the past. Now I'm back home I will soon upload a few of the more relevant pictures to the blogs I did each day.

The first phase was always meant to finish at Wroxeter, and that before planning Phase 2. Reflecting on it, I realise that it's actually very difficult to see the Roman road itself. After not being sure, I'm just beginning to think that a roadside cable trench that I saw by Catthorpe, with a layer of evenly graded pebbly stones at one section, might just have been a piece of the real road: a bit more research required, though before confirming that. It is, however, possible still to see the signs of Roman engineering - surprisingly perhaps, best of all in Greater London. I have some further thoughts on Watling Street as a boundary, between the Great Ouse and the Anker. I didn't manage to engage as well as I'd hoped on the relationship between the road and its surrounding landscape. The reuse of the road down the ages is its greatest testament, and there are still the modern names that link back to that past.

Phase 2? Soon, but no date planned yet.        

To Uriconium

Following Watling Street through modern Telford was interesting. The road is essentially still there, but made up of lots of little bits that do not necessarily join up in the modern road network, and involving ducking under one overpass and taking one subway - the latter at Beveley Road, but helpfully labelled as still being Watling Street. The road alignment has changed a little over the years, as this is an area which has been extensively developed and redeveloped since the early industrial revolution.

At Ketley Brook, there is a nice relic of the old Roman Street, where it dives down the valley past one of many Primitive Methodist chapels in the area; Telford built an embankment bypassing this hollow, where Harper commented in 1902 there were many "disreputable houses". Since then a modern roundabout has been built, still using much of Telford's work, while most of those houses have gone and the Seventh Day Adventists now occupy the place of worship.

The White Lion in Ketley is another old inn, dating, according to its exterior, to 1661, so another one which pre-dates even the turnpike era. It isn't quite parallel to the present-day road, which perhaps suggest a shift in the road since the 17th century. The same could be said just below Bennetts Bank where a terrace of early 19th century houses isn't quite in line with the road in front of them, but lines up with the road ahead of me to the West.

Out into the countryside I was able to follow the quieter 'Roman Road' to Burcotgate to find a nice little tollhouse. It looks very much of the same design as Telford's tollhouses through North Wales, although the date of 1835 on it is a little later. From this point, the line of Watling Street leaves the so-called 'Roman Road' to pass along a public footpath, closer to the new A5, through fields over Overley Hill. Margery here commented that the Roman Road was "clearly visible as a slight ridge across the arable fields"; I can only say that he was not, as I was, faced with acres of oilseed rape towering over him. The footpath eventually goes under the A5 by a subway and emerges by Blue Bell House, the name no doubt another relic of an early inn.

I arrived at the Horseshoe Inn. Here Watling Street becomes a narrow lane going straight on to Wroxeter. The larger road swings to the right towards Shrewsbury, and this was Telford's road and where I will rsume Phase 2 of the walk. For now, I went on into Uriconium, the Roman City of Wroxeter. They didn't quite believe me at first when I said I had walked the length of Watling Street from London to get here, but a big welcome once it had sunk in.

 

To Uxacona

Today was mostly walking through a still rural part of Watling Street, less touched by the industrial revolution and modern development. This gave me a chance to look out for what might, in earlier times, have been inns serving travellers.

First off, very soon from my start, was the Four Crosses, an allegedly haunted old inn, dating back at least to 1636: the date is on it. The cleric and author Jonathan Swift was among its clientele. The age of this building would mean it served travellers even before the turnpikes. Attached to it, though, is a later tollhouse: not with the more typical octagonal design, but the wide windowsill for transacting cash gives it away. This is no longer an inn: a pity.

Gailey Wharf has interesting canalside buildings, dedicated more to the canal than the road traveller. The interesting Round House dates to 1805, so would have been here before Telford improved the road. Under the present road bridge, the brick arches of the original canal bridge reveal the earlier dimensions of the road.

At the site of Pennocrucium, there should be another Roman road running south, and one more running almost north-west towards Mediolanum/Whitchurch. As the fields concerned were planted with wheat, I didn't find these.

I did enjoy the elegant Stretton Bridge which carries the A5 over river Penk. Dated to c. 1830, it doesn't seem to have required any widening to carry present-day traffic.

Going back to inns, a house at the end of the Avenue in Stretton must once have been the Crown. Almost opposite, the Bell is still kitted-out as a pub, but not now open.

Thankfully, the Bradford Arms at Ivetsy Bank is still going strong. With a history going back to the 18th century, this pub once stood right at the roadside before motor-age improvememts put a wider road in a cutting below. Landlord Paul Rushton was able tell me something of its history: there is a story of one customer who could not pay his bill, and offered to do a spot of interior decorating instead: a little of his work survives.

Another old inn, the Hare and Hounds, is still in business as Shifnal Cottage, an Indian restaurant.

I passed the site of Uxacona. The name of Pennocrucium survives in Penkridge, albeit in a slightly different place. Does Uxacona give us Oakengates? The books point to the more obvious meaning of 'Oakengates' but I still fancy it's not far off descending from the Roman.

Towards Pennocrucium

I was wrong yesterday to suggest that the stone which had stood at the Watling/Icknield crossroads was a later monument, like that at High Cross. Walking on a little further in Wall today, I read the information board in English Heritage's car park: it really was a Roman milestone.

Another old sign was at the Rising Sun: what was said to be England's oldest finger-post, dated 1777, or rather a replica of it. The Rising Sun itself appears here on old maps, and now gives its name to the junction. There's still a building, but this sun has not risen for some years.

Just after the junction and then a railway bridge, the road changes direction: unusually, not being a summit, valley bottom, or junction. Harper, author of The Holyhead Road (1902), reckoned there was another mile of road continuing onwards on the old alignment. This, he says, is evidence that the road had been built from both directions at the same time. A mistake in surveying led to them joining up at the point where the direction changes, the little section which had gone past that point then being abandoned.

One of my aims for today was to see if I could find this bit. There's a footpath in this general direction at first. Here the line of continuation is marked by a line of trees forming a field boundary: promising at first as a roadway might be a convenient ownership boundary, later acquiring a hedge or fence. As far as I could see, the ground under the trees was a single narrow (hedge-width) ridge, which was not so suggestive of a road. Going further on, the other side of a canal, the line is followed by Gorsey Lane.  This fitted my expectation of a Roman Road: straight, a little wider than usual for a country lane, ditches either side. Then I realised that none of the Watling Street I've seen on this walk has looked much like that, so maybe it's my expectations that are wrong.

Still, I was satisfied that I had found what Harper described, if not persuaded of his explanation.

As well as looking out for old buildings and structures connected with the road, I'm also interested in the modern usage which reflects and celebrates the history. I'm noting the 'street' placenames like Stretton and Streetway, which have a long provenance. The modern street name and postal address for a good proportion of this road is still Watling Street, and I'm also noting several uses of Watling in house and business names.

Earlier in the walk, I had called in at the Roman Way Garden Centre. This evening I am at the Roman Way Hotel. I haven't blogged about where I have eaten or stayed before, because generally these were chosen for practical support of the journey: where they were, not how they were. In the case of this hotel, I wanted to come here because, unlike, say, the garden centre, it celebrates the Roman theme in more than just the name. There is classical inspired architecture, exterior and interior decoration - although the hotel fare generally is fairly standard. It dates to 1990 - MCMXC as a mosaic at reception declares - and has seen better days. Still, I'm impressed they make the effort.

To Letocetum

Setting off from Atherstone, I was soon passing through what one of my earlier authors called a colliery landscape. No collieries now of course, but many brick buildings from that era, suggesting that little along this road had developed until the late 19th century.

The curiously-named Hall End Hall in Dordon was an exception, and then the Queens Head Inn in Wilnecote. Unlike so many others, it's good to see this delightful old pub still trading, although once again I had arrived too early in the day to benefit. My lunch was taken instead at the side of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

As the old road is by-passed and becomes quieter towards Hints and Weeford, I found three substantial cast-iron milestones. They appeared three of a kind, so it's odd apparently only one is listed, something else to follow up.

 As I got close to Wall, I tried to follow the course of the Roman road past Lawton Grange. My map shows a public footpath here, somehow improbably crossing both the railway and the dualled A5 to continue towards Manor Farm. The people at Lawton Grange were certain that there was no longer any such path. I doubled back and picked up the path to Manor Farm on the other side of the main road. In this field is the crossing point with Icknield Street. There used to be a stone to mark the crossing: not contemporary Roman, perhaps something like the monument at High Cross. It's marked on early Ordnance Survey maps. Anyway, it's not there now.

Wall is parsimoniously named after an obvious feature that didn't require archaeologists to find it, like a big step in the field by Ashcroft Lane. This is now known to be part of later defences, like the burgus at Mancetter. Going into the village, it's then possible to see in open air some excavated earlier buildings of the Roman town of Letocetum. It was great to see these, although I was surprised to have been the only visitor, for the hour I was there on this fine spring afternoon.