On Day 33, in Norfolk, I bivvied between wild flowers next to a Roman road bridleway close to Lord Nelson’s birthplace and here, a little over a fortnight later, I’m staying in the Mole Valley hotel where Nelson slept on his last night in England on his way to Portsmouth before the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Burford Bridge Hotel — it was the Fox and Hounds in Nelson’s day, an important coaching inn on the London Road; parts of the building date to the 13th Century, although much of it is a 19th Century expansion — is now a Mercure property and I’ve wanted to stay here for some time.

I’ve known about the interesting history of the hotel since the research on my 1930s cycle tracks project. The hotel has the period cycle tracks of the Mickleham bypass almost at its front door. And one of my favourite period photographs of the 1930s cycle tracks probably dates from the 1940s and shows a man in smart trousers and a jacket leaning on a roadster bicycle. The cycle track and the road — both capped with concrete — gleam white in the sunlight. Five cars are in motion and there are eight other cyclists in the photo, all on the cycle track heading towards the junction with the Old London Road and the Burford Bridge Hotel.

It has been a history-dense day (most of my curated rides are designed so), starting with a guided tour around St. Giles church at Stoke Poges by Jennifer, a stalwart of the congregation. The loop I did in this area last night also visited Stoke Poges so the information on the church’s “bicycle window” will be in the book alongside the church’s other historic claims to fame.

I flew the drone to get a photograph of the wider landscape — there are strong historic tales to be told, in due course, about the three buildings I focussed on (and a modern one about an Indian billionaire, too).

In Colnbrook — on the old Bath Road — I recreated an 1899 illustration drawn by road book author Charles Harper who placed himself outside the town’s Ostrich Inn. This hostelry is claimed to date to 1106, originally built as a hospice, although the present building is clearly 16th or 17th century in origin. Back in the 1890s Harper dismissed Colnbrook as “decayed.” Plus ça change.

Passing Heathrow I tried to make out the 1950s cycle tracks and took a photo of the Great West Road’s 1930s cycle tracks before taking more photos of the modern and period cycle tracks of Tolworth.

More historic connections – pix of artefacts, sites and interpretation boards in the main — can be seen by clicking through the geotagged pix on the right.