During the Napoleonic Wars, travellers between the inland HQ at Weedon (see later) and the capital would stop in Stony and stay at one of its two coaching inns: The Cock or The Bull. They would exchange stories abut the battles, most of which were either exaggerations or complete lies. These were the original  “Cock and Bull Stories”.


When I was there, a Bank Holiday Saturday, the town was preparing for a battle re-enactment the next day by members of the Sealed Knot.







 
Stony Stratford

North of St Albans the road goes through Dunstable, down the north side of the Chilterns and through villages to the new sprawl of Milton Keynes. Here, the modern A5 becomes a dual carriageway for 10 miles but the original road (here known as the V4) keeps a straight line through all the new development until reaching the northern end of the City limits in the old coaching village of Stony Stratford.