Travel: The things I've seen: Cyclists' Memorial

JUDGING by the looks one gets, people who walk along country roads seem to be regarded as 'odd'. Pedestrians and cyclists are just nuisances who get in the way of motorised traffic.

Nevertheless, I decided to walk to Meriden from the nearest railway station, Hampton in Arden. There, on the village green, beside an ancient wayside cross and the village flagpole, I found the Cyclists' Memorial. The monument was erected in memory of those cyclists who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Cyclists still come annually to pay their respects.

Meriden, in Warwickshire, is traditionally at the geographical centre of England. It was mentioned as such in the Domesday Book. An oak tree is said to mark dead centre. A similar claim is made on a brass plate in the nearby Bull's Head.

Both many be wrong. Owing to such factors as coastal erosion, Ordnance Survey has established that the centre of England is now at Hinckley in Leicestershire.

The Cyclists' Memorial is at OS grid reference SP 239822.

(Photograph omitted)