Cuttle - surely not as in fish? I live about as far from the sea in the UK as possible. A nearby village - Meriden - is the traditional centre of England (a place near Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire now being the official one), there can't have been marine molluscs around here when the lane was named. It's also an obsolete noun for a bully and a verb for folding cloth in pleats. Perhaps then the latter, but what has that got to do with a pool? And where is the pool? It is possible to spy one, on private land, about halfway along the lane.
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| The footbridge at Temple Balsall, on my route to Cuttle Pool Lane |
I stop off at a nature reserve maintained by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. Decaying concrete blocks a nod to its former use as a site for extracting gravel and sand. Being June, the bluebells are no longer in flower but common spotted orchids are in bloom.
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The entrance to the nature reserve
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| Remnants of an industrial past |
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| A common spotted orchid |
I ride on through typical English June weather: a cycle of blue skies, cloud, sun, showers, as the minutes tick along. Through Chadwick End, past Baddesley Clinton, and Hay Wood. Before Finwood Lane crosses the M40, a left onto a bridleway. It offers much under tire: gravel, grass, soil; space to either side at times, then dense nettle and bramble - legs stung, legs nicked.
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| The bridleway off Finwood Road |
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| The Grand Union Canal |
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| A way through? |
Shrewley, then Beausdale, before home. More lanes with names of intrigue: clatty - dirty, untidy, unpleasant.
Another close-by road suggesting it was once a bit of a mess round here.
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