Ware Walk: Town Centre【4K】

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Located in the county of Hertfordshire, and just over 20 miles north of central London, is the town of Ware.
It is claimed that Ware is one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Western Europe. This is based on archaeological excavations near Ware Lock which revealed settlements going back to the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age 5,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Geographically Ware is situated on the point where the old Roman road between London, Lincoln and York known as Ermine Street, and later the Old North Road, crossed the River Lea. The Romans had a settlement here consisting of several buildings, a temple and two cemeteries.
During the Saxon era Ware was positioned at the frontier between Wessex and the Danelaw. King Alfred is said to have travelled from London to Ware via the River Lea to engage the Danes in battle but was beaten off. So Alfred, using the Danes' own tactics, built fortifications on either side of the river and started work on diverting the rivers course so that the Danes could not row their ships down the Lea again to the Thames. The town's Saxon name 'Waras' allegedly comes from the weirs Alfred built.
The layout of Ware's town centre as it appears today was designed at the end of the 12th century. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, many coaching inns were established on what is now the High Street, owing to Ware's key location along the Old North Road. These inns began to disappear with the emergence of the malting industry. The passage of wagons bringing barley into the town for malting made the roads almost impassable for much of the winter. Samuel Pepys travelled to Cambridge via Ware, often complaining about the state of the road, particularly when he had to get down from the coach and fell into a ditch. But after the erection of the turnpike, he preferred to go via Bishop’s Stortford.
Whilst the coaching industry declined, the malting industry thrived. Its position between London and the barley-growing counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, along with easy access to London via the River Lea, made it ideally situated. Eventually the malthouses began to disappear with the last one closing in 1994. The Maltmaker Statue outside St Mary's Church pays homage to this industry.
During the late 19th century the pharmaceutical company Allen & Hanburys built factories in Ware, specialising in infants' foods, medicated pastilles and malt preparations among others. In 1958 the company was absorbed by Glaxo Laboratories, who later became GlaxoSmithKline as the result of a merger. Presently they are the main employer in Ware.
In 1843 the railway arrived in Ware. Today it lies on the Hertford East branch line to London Liverpool Street, making it a viable commuter town for those working in the capital.
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Filmed: 8th November 2021
Link to the walk on Google Maps: Unavailable for this walk (too glitchy on Google's end)
Filmed on a Sony FDR-AX700 with a Zhiyun Crane 2 and a Sony ECM-XYST1M Stereo Microphone.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 River Lea
4:00 Amwell End
6:14 Bridge Foot
6:57 High Street
9:12 West Street
9:51 High Street
10:04 West Street
11:15 St Mary's Ware
11:25 West Street
11:31 The Maltmaker Statue
11:41 West Street
11:59 Church Street
13:34 Crib Street