Bradshaw’s Britain: destination Bletchley

Stephen Roberts’ latest trip based on his 1863 Bradshaw’s Guide takes him from Watford Junction to the home of the Second World War codebreakers.

This ninth instalment in my series on Bradshaw’s Britain says a great deal about the enduring appeal of Bradshaw’s Handbook, and my 1863 version of this wonderfully detailed, curiously quirky and slightly archaic representation of Britain’s railways more than 160 years ago.

For this latest Victorian jolly, I’m tracing a chunk of the West Coast Main Line between Watford Junction and Bletchley, with some lost branch lines along the way.

Watford Junction

I start in Watford (population 4,385 but given as over 100,000 today). Yes, it’s no longer the small market town that Bradshaw would have recognised, consisting of “only one street, with minor roads diverging from it”.

He directs me to the Essex Arms, which was certainly around in 1851, when the publican was a Frederick Webb, and it was handily placed in the High Street. Rather unhandily, it is no more, although there is a modern Essex Arms elsewhere in the town.

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