(TRUNK ROUTE)
DUNSTABLE TO ATHERSTONE, 72½ MILES
DISTANCES ALONG THE ROUTE
Miles.
=Dunstable= to Hockliffe 4½
=Hockliffe= to Fenny Stratford 7¼
=Fenny Stratford= to Stony Stratford 7
=Stony Stratford= to Towcester 8
=Towcester= to Daventry 12¼
=Daventry= to Kilsby 5½
=Kilsby= to Lutterworth 9¾
=Lutterworth= to Cross-in-Hand 2½
=Cross-in-Hand= to High Cross 3¾
=High Cross= to Atherstone 12
NOTES FOR DRIVERS
=Dunstable to Daventry.=--Undulating in places, but with good surface
to Daventry.
=Daventry to Lutterworth.=--Poor road to Kilsby; 4 miles from Kilsby
an ascent of 1 in 14, followed by a descent of 1 in 12; then a
gradually improving road to Lutterworth.
=Kilsby to Atherstone.=--Undulating road, with good surface.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
=Fenny Stratford.=--A small town with a Georgian church.
=Stony Stratford.=--A small town with no great interest.
=Towcester.=--Easton Neston House and Park.
=Daventry.=--Small town; historic inn.
=Lutterworth.=--Quiet country town; associations with Wycliffe,
especially in the Perpendicular church, where the great Protestant's
pulpit is still to be seen.
=Cross-in-Hand.=--Roman centre for roads.
=Nuneaton.=--Two miles off the main road to the south-west; the
George Eliot country.
=Hartshill.=--Two miles off route; remains of Norman castle.
=Mancetter.=--Church, Roman camp, and manor-house.
=Atherstone.=--A small manufacturing town on the Watling Street,
without any interesting features.
[Map: (TRUNK) No. 2. DUNSTABLE TO ATHERSTONE.]
Shortly after leaving Dunstable a long, easy descent of the northern
slope of the Dunstable Downs occurs, these hills being part of the
Chilterns. A fine view over a large part of Bucks and Beds is seen in
front, and an interesting sweep of the Downs behind. A number of
sleepy little villages occur, each presenting rural features of its
own in harmony with the surroundings. At Hockliffe a side-road leads
to the beautiful Woburn Park and Abbey. At ~Fenny Stratford~, a small
town chiefly consisting of one street, the Roman station of
_Magiovintum_ was situated, and coins and other remains are
frequently found; the only modern association appears to be connected
with Browne Willis, the antiquary, who is buried here. The church is
early Georgian, dating from 1724. Seven miles farther on, ~Stony
Stratford~, a small uninteresting town, is reached, known chiefly in
history through having had an Eleanor Cross, which disappeared in
Puritan days, and also from the capture of Edward V. by his uncle, the
Duke of Gloucester. ~Bradwell Abbey~, founded in 1155, now a farmhouse,
lies about three miles away to the right.
From Stony Stratford to Towcester the route runs as straight as an
arrow, and one can imagine the metalled track of the road the legions
tramped lying but a few feet beneath the surface. ~Towcester~ is the
ancient _Lactodorum_, and the later Tove Castra, or Camp on the River
Tove, which flows through the town. Few, if any, Roman remains are now
visible, and Easton Neston House with its picturesque park is the only
feature of interest in the neighbourhood.
The road to Weedon is somewhat undulating, and rises in places to 500
feet above sea-level, an altitude which has not been reached since
leaving Dunstable. At Weedon it is necessary to make a detour to the
left, as the Watling Street for some considerable distance has been
allowed to fall into disrepair; in fact, it is merely in some cases a
trackway through grassy fields, with farmers' gates across the
vanished road. The restoration of this part of the Roman way has been
proposed at times, but never carried out, the considerable cost and
the paucity of towns and villages probably accounting for it. This gap
in continuity is to be deplored for sentimental reasons, but not for
practical utility, as the track is at times more than undulating.
DAVENTRY
~Daventry~ is a small town possessing but few attractions beyond its
historic hotel, the Wheat Sheaf, built in 1610, and known in the
annals of Warwickshire as the resting-place of Charles I. (after the
taking of Leicester) for six consecutive days in 1645, the Royal
troops, both horse and foot, in considerable numbers occupying the
surrounding fields. The regal bedchamber may be seen and even
occupied, while the courtyard, famous in duelling days, is visible
from its window. In one encounter in 1696 a young ensign, named
Gardner, gasped out his life after a duel to the death with his
lieutenant. Near Daventry lies Althorp Park, the seat of Earl Spencer.
In this medieval house, not greatly altered since, James I. and
William III. were entertained.
On leaving Daventry the road turns sharply to the right to ~Kilsby~,
with a poor surface most of the way. It passes through a well-wooded
country, and a short distance beyond Kilsby joins the Watling Street
at an acute angle. Upon looking backwards, the line of the ancient
highway may be distinctly traced through the fields. From this point
until Atherstone is reached, a distance of nearly twenty-three miles,
Leicestershire lies upon the right-hand side of the road and
Warwickshire upon the left.
~Dunsmore Heath~ is then crossed, and shortly afterwards two lines of
railway are passed, the source of the Warwickshire Avon being near the
first at Dove Bridge. At Churchover is the birthplace of Cave, of
_Gentleman's Magazine_ fame. The main road from Rugby to Lutterworth
branches off to the right. Near this point, on the brow of the hill,
just north-west of Cave's Inn and on both sides of the Watling Street,
is the site of the great Roman station _Tripontium_. The remains have
almost disappeared, but pieces of pottery are plentiful, and coins are
now and then unearthed.
RUGBY
lies a few miles to the west of the main route, and is famous for its
great school, founded in 1567, being one of the four great public
schools in England. The buildings are chiefly in the Tudor style, and
date from 1808, with many subsequent additions. Besides the school,
there are practically no objects of interest in the town. The road to
Lutterworth is slightly undulating, with a good surface.
LUTTERWORTH
is a quiet little country town of about 2,000 inhabitants, lying in a
pastoral district fissured occasionally with wooded valleys. It is a
typical foxhunting centre. The main street descends a hill somewhat
abruptly, and crosses a small bridge over the River Swift, from which
point the ashes of Wycliffe were scattered. The church is endeared to
the champions of Protestantism by its associations with Wycliffe, and
by the tangible relics which are preserved in it of his residence here
from 1375 to 1384. The architecture of the church is chiefly of the
fourteenth century. The nave is early Perpendicular, but a Decorated
window occupies the end of the south aisle, where there was formerly a
Lady Chapel. The chancel also is Perpendicular, with an Early English
window and door. It is thus somewhat difficult to point out work which
belongs to that period when Wycliffe ministered in the building. The
greater part of the nave, however, may be thus assigned, and also the
fresco over the north doorway, showing a queen between two kings. Over
the chancel arch is another fresco. The nave roof is Perpendicular,
but the pulpit, from which the reformer preached, is the great object
of interest, dating as it does from a period anterior to Wycliffe's
incumbency, and is thus over 500 years old. A fragment of a cope or
chasuble is interesting as an undoubted relic, but the chair, table,
and wooden candlesticks must be regarded with suspicion--the chair
more than the others. The 'Morning Star of the Reformation' was buried
in the chancel, where his remains rested for thirty years; they were
then dug up, burnt, and cast into the river.
The road from Lutterworth, rejoining the Watling Street, emerges at
the ~Cross-in-Hand~, where care must be taken in the selection of the
right road. From Cross-in-Hand to High Cross there is nothing of
particular moment, but at the latter place, where five roads meet, was
one of the most important junctions of Roman highways for the Watling
Street. It is crossed here by the Foss Way coming from Gloucester, and
leading through Leicester to Lincoln. The great station of _Venonæ_ or
_Benones_ was situated here, but has entirely disappeared. Taking the
road marked 'To Holyhead,' the road leads over Smockington Hill, and a
few miles farther on a turning on the left to Nuneaton (two miles off
the main road) is reached.
~Nuneaton~ lies in the centre of the 'George Eliot' country, and is the
Milverton of the novelist, while Chilvers Coton near it figures in
'Scenes of Clerical Life,' and 'Oldinport' may be traced in
'Newdegate,' the family name of the residents at Arbury Hall, a
delightfully situated country-seat a few miles to the south-west of
the town. Beyond this Nuneaton possesses no special features, except a
church built in the Decorated period, and another--St. Mary's--a
modern replica of the Abbey Church which formerly occupied the site.
The spire of ~Hinckley Church~ is now seen upon the right, six miles to
the north of which lies the ~Battlefield of Bosworth~. The North
Warwickshire Coalfield has now been reached, and in the high ground
upon the left there is an interesting geological district. The stone
quarries worked there were formerly supposed to produce Millstone
Grit of the Carboniferous formation, but which has recently been
proved to be pre-Cambrian, and necessarily the most ancient of rocks.
~Hartshill~ is in this district; it is the birthplace of Michael
Drayton, and contains a few ruins of a Norman castle dating from 1125.
To the right of the Watling Street lies Fenny Drayton, where George
Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers, was born. Before entering
Atherstone the small village of ~Witherley~ is passed upon the right,
and the River Anker here divides the site of the great Roman station
of _Manduessedum_ into two parts. The name has been anglicized into
~Mancetter~. The oblong earthwork yet remains, about 630 feet long and
440 feet broad. The church stands on the ruins of the western side of
the camp. Many coins have been found here, and great masses of Roman
masonry lie beneath the soil. The summer camps lie upon the adjacent
hills. The first turning on the left, after passing the bridge, leads
in a few minutes to Mancetter Manor House, originally built in 1135,
and presenting a quaint Edwardian appearance at the present day. In
1432 the Glovers occupied it, one of whom suffered martyrdom in the
Marian persecution.
ATHERSTONE,
a singularly uninteresting looking town, whose staple manufacture is
felt hats, has a long, straggling street, a portion of the Watling
Street, and during sewage operations about fifty years ago the remains
of the original Roman road came to light, at some depth below the
present surface; some of the paving-stones, grooved by chariot wheels,
were in places cemented together. Henry of Richmond slept at the Three
Tuns Inn, now demolished, the night before Bosworth Battle, and heard
Mass in the church, which is not of great archæological interest.