London Colney

London Colney is named for being on the road to London, and the M25 junction still does what the coaching road used to: it gets people somewhere else. Its handsome brick bridge is called Telford's Bridge and apparently wasn't built by Telford. The two pubs face each other across the old ford like rivals still splitting the crossing trade. The village's big wartime moment came when a German spy parachuted in, buried his kit and his lunch by mistake, then asked two lorry drivers the way to London and got handed to the local constable, so even the spy was only passing through.