Roads, canals and railways all squeeze through the same gap at Weedon Bec, and that is the key to its story. The village lies in the gentle Northamptonshire countryside near Daventry, where the old Roman road of Watling Street, now the A5, the Grand Union Canal and the West Coast Main Line run side by side through a shallow valley. For centuries this has been a natural corridor between London and the northwest.
Weedon's most remarkable feature is hidden behind a high brick wall. During the Napoleonic Wars, when invasion seemed a real threat, the government built the Royal Ordnance Depot here, about as far from the coast as you can get in England, to store arms and gunpowder safely inland. A branch of the canal ran into the depot, through a portcullis gate, linking its storehouses to the national waterway network. Local legend says that the depot's pavilions were intended to house King George III and the government if Napoleon landed, though historians doubt it. The depot was used by the army until the twentieth century, and many of its buildings survive, some now home to businesses and shops.
The countryside around Weedon is rolling farmland, with hedges, small woods and villages built of the local ironstone, which gives the houses a warm brown and golden colour. The canal towpaths are pleasant for a walk, with narrowboats moored along the banks. Nearby, Althorp, the Spencer family estate where Diana, Princess of Wales, grew up and is buried, lies a few miles to the east.
For riders, the A5 is a fast but busy road, while the lanes around the villages are quieter and more interesting, with gentle curves, short climbs and views over the fields. The surface can be rough and muddy in places, especially after rain or the harvest, and the roads can be narrow. Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, lies within easy reach to the south, and the Cotswolds begin further west, with their honey-coloured stone villages and winding roads.
Weedon Bec has a few shops and pubs, and Daventry, a few miles to the northwest, has supermarkets and fuel stations. A pint and a pie in a village pub is a classic English stop, though the drink-driving limit is strict, so keep it to soft drinks while you are riding.