Cranham, Birdlip, Badgeworth 23rd February 2010

The main story of today's ride has to be the weather.  Leaving Hucclecote, clear and +3C.  Today I decided it was time to get some hills in, partly for the sake of the ride and partly because I wanted to see how much snow there still was on the hills.  The answer?  At the top of Birdlip, the temperature dropped to -3, blowing a gale and snowing.  Also, I feel the need to apologise for my photos today.  The batteries in my camera were flat and I am far too disorganised to carry spares.  Therefore these pictures are taken with my mobile phone.

 I don't know what you think about hills. Whether it is better to take the longer, shallower route or the short sharp climb. In the case of small hills, I prefer the short sharp climb, as the hill gets higher, and I am less fit, I tend towards the long shallower route. Today I left heading approximately south on Painswick Road. A long steady climb that passes my first stop of the day at Prinknash Abbey. The first picture a distant shot showing St Peters' Grange, a tudor manor house which served as the monastery until the newer building in the second picture took over as the monastery. A couple of years ago, all the monks moved back to St Peters' when the newer building was bought to be developed into a retirement village.
From the Abbey, there are also good views across Gloucester that this panorama doesn't do justice to.  Although if you click on it for the full size view, you should be able to see that it is now snowing.

Carrying on up away from the Abbey, I turned left onto Buckholt Road through Cranham Woods.  The woods have a long history and much of the area is a nature reserve.  However it is almost more infamous for its reputation as a place where Billy Bad Boy in his 1.1 Vauxhall Corsa with blacked out windows, enough spoilers to shame a Formula one car and a dustbin exhaust will fake a breakdown in an effort to be less than honourable with his girlfriend...  As you leave Cranham and enter into Birdlip, there is also a large Bronze Age round barrow well off the road in farmers field.  You can just make it out in this photograph.

Into Birdlip, I am now at just about the highest point of today's ride and a quick swig from the bidon confirms just how cold it has got.  There are ice crystals in my water.  Next stop is Barrow wake viewpoint.  On a clear day, you can see most of Gloucester and across the escarpment to Crickley Hill quite easily from this viewpoint.  Today, however, is far from clear.  It seems strange now to think back to when this rather rough narrow section of road was the A417 only about 20 years ago before the new carriageway was built.  The road now passes under the new road and leads nowhere except to the radio station so it is a case of turning round and heading back to the main road to head towards Cheltenham down Leckhampton Road.  A long fast stretch of downhill although with the disadvantage today that the snow has now turned to small falling shreds of ice that feel like they are slashing your skin.  However, there is still the challenge towards the bottom as you enter Cheltenham, on a bicycle, you can set off the flashing 30mph speed warning sign. 

Heading home, I cycled around Cheltenham and out through Hatherley and Cold Pool lane.  A quick stop at Badgeworth to admire Holy Trinity Church.  I'm guessing that this is a medieval church and must only serve a village population.   Extremely well kept, there are graves back to 18th century, an original little handwash thingy next to the main entrance and some intriguing medieval graffiti alongside the door.  I hope the pictures do justice.

Before leaving Badgeworth church, I was subjected to some considerable snowfall so I took refuge in the lychgate whilst it passed.  As I sat there for maybe 15 minutes my mind did wander and was quite awe inspired to simply think of how many people (without considering the original purpose of greeting the corpse) must have done the same thing, to shelter from the weather or simply to take a rest.  Still, the snow abated and I made way back to the car via Churchdown village.

Total distance - 37 KM

Average Speed - 22.5 KM/h

Weather - Between +3C and -3C, Rain, sleet and snow.  Easterley wind.

Hempstead, Elmore and Longney 14th February 2010

14th February is a significant date for many reasons.  First, and maybe most importantly, it is my daughter Victoria's birthday. She is 9 today.  Vic is, however, celebrating with her mum and having about a million friends to stay.  It is also St Valentine's day when we celebrate the life and martyrdom of any number of saints called Valentine that somehow turns into a commercial display of love.  Being the old romantic I obviously am, my wife, Tina, and I went out together for the day and a meal and stuff yesterday.  The other thing we remember is the 1929 St Valentine's day massacre in Chicago.  That is more how I feel now that Anthony is quite capable of leaving me in his wake.  That's the benefit of youth, an active lifestyle and not hauling 15 stone of blubber around.

Today's ride took us through a number of lanes around the villages of Hempstead, Elmore and Longney that I wasn't very familiar with before today but have been real eye openers.  These are, similar to my previous blog theme, villages within a stones throw of an ever increasing housing estate, this time the outrageous sprawl of Quedgeley.

We left our estate by crossing the Gloucester-Sharpness canal using Hempstead bridge, closed to motorised traffic a couple of years ago.  Up a bit of a hill to Hempstead village and turning left onto Rea lane which, according to Google maps, takes you onto Simms lane and drops you in Quedgeley.  Except it doesn't.  It is a dead end.  There is a public path across a field onto Simms lane.  Undaunted, we traipsed across and  continued as planned.  Turning back away from Quedgeley, Elmore Lane took us, unsurprisingly, to Elmore.

Elmore Court  This has been owned by the same family since the 13th century.  Around here there was also the added bonus of quite a plethora of wildlife.  From rabbits, pheasants (sorry, didn't have a gun) and a really quite impressive Kestrel(?) - I'm not much of a twitcher but there were a couple and I understand they aren't rare in this area.





Elmore Parish Church - St John the Baptist.  Strikes me as being a bit out of the way even for the village of Elmore although for the casual tourist this isn't such a bad thing.  The 13th century church stands very much in its own land with stones in the graveyard and tombs reasonably clearly dating back to 15th century.

This rather intriguing structure in the church yard and to the west is the remains of an 18th century mausoleum.

Heading out of Elmore, you quickly find yourself in the similar village of Longney.  The first sign of more civilisation again being the parish church of St Laurence from a very similar era and built in a very similar style.
This church, Elmore church that we visited above and St Nicholas, Hardwicke (not yet visited) are part of a three church union that despite nigh on 1000 years of history appear to have quite a vibrant community and a very modern web presence.















By now, it is fast approaching 5pm so we would be running out of daylight and we have no bike lights so time to head back home.  A bit disappointing as there are many more villages and areas of interest around here that deserve much more attention.   You could easily snake down the canal through Saul, Slimbridge and any number of other villages to the termination of the canal at Sharpness.  I reckon that could make for a whole day out in the summer.

Total distance - 25 KM

Average Speed - 25.5 KM/h

Weather - about 8C, Dry and calm

Upton St Leonards and Matson 28th January 2010

Odd as this may seem to Gloucester locals, my ride today and the ensuing blog have a very village theme.  Stick with me, I shall explain.

Leaving Hucclecote, as has become normal, cycling down Green Lane and crossing through a cycle gate into Lobley's drive and swung left towards Upton St Leonards.  Upton is quite a rare beast in as much as it is maintains the proper village feel.  It has a church, a school, a village hall and precious little else.  The body of the village has been there since time immemorial and subsequent building has been sympathetic to the village.  There has been a relentless growth from Brockworth and more so from Abbeydale/Abbeymead that have threatened to encroach on this little idyll (by appearance at least) but have not, in my opinion succeeded.   Similarly, growth could easily have turned the area into just another suburban housing estate.

St Leonard's Church

Upton St Leonards primary school as viewed from the churchyard.

War memorial and entrance to Church grounds.

Fighting the urge to head uphill towards Painswick, after all it's hard enough to haul my sorry 15 stone arse around on the flat at the moment let alone any roads that head up, I left Upton on a road called the Ash Path.  As a kid in the early eighties, I have fond memories of this road.  It now joins Upton and Abbeydale crossing the M5 to do so.  I remember it as a road that didn't quite.  For many years it failed by maybe 50 metres, the road going nowhere.  Not stopping in Abbeydale, I cross Painswick Road and head into Matson.  This picture shows Matson as the council estate with the dry ski slopes on Robinswood Hill in the background.  The ski centre has recently been on the market with a guide price of 1.5 million; I did consider it, of course.

For anybody who is familiar with the area, they are unlikely to describe Matson so much as a village as a stereotypical council sink estate from the 1960's onwards.  Whilst that isn't entirely unfair there are some nods back to it's village heritage.  I think particularly of St Katherine's Church and the surrounding area.  Why?  well for one, anyone that knows me will be aware that I can't pass a church without a bit of a nose and a few photographs.  There has been a church of some sort on the site almost as long as Gloucester has had a Cathedral.  The current building dating to late 19th century.   Another indicator of the village nature that the church houses is the small war memorial in the grounds.  It is also interesting to consider Matson House on the other side of the road.  This would have been originally for the Lord of the Manor.  More recently, when I was at school, it was Selwyn House private girl's school, although how I would have been aware of that I'm sure I don't know and now is, I believe, a nursing home.  Local rumours in the area are rife of underground chambers between the church and Matson House and of hauntings by a blue lady amongst others - dig beneath the surface and Matson haunting stories are ten a penny, although please let me regale you with an altogether more spooky story from the 1970's:

A chap was on his way home from his night shift one very foggy morning around 6.30.am and was riding his moped up Matson lane, past the Moat School and up toward's Robin's farm and as he was passing St Katherine's Church, he glanced to his right at the churchyard and could just make out an eerie ghostly face of what appeared to be the face of a horned devil in the graveyard, looking right back at him and transfixed, turning his head over his shoulder in disbelief as he drove past, he nearly crashed his moped.

Filled with horror ! He sped home as fast as his bike would go and when he got home, his wife was up getting ready for work and was shocked to see her husband, stagger in, the blood drained from his face and looking as white as a sheet. He went to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a very large Whiskey, then told her what he saw and sat there for half an hour in shock.

His wife alarmed at his state, phoned the police, who sent a police car up to the church, where they found...........

A COW ! That had strayed from a nearby field, into the graveyard and promptly fell into a freshly dug, unused grave ! It's head, was just visible from the road and the police apparently, couldn't stop laughing. Later making arrangement's for the cow to be removed, as there was a funeral later that day and a new resident was ready to move in and use the grave.


  
Finally, and sadly, this is a more familiar image of Matson.  The closed Musket pub.  Not only is this an all too familiar site nationally, in an area like Matson, it is another indication of the erosion of the communal 'village' type atmosphere.

Total distance - 17Km

Average Speed - 26 KM/h

Weather - about 8C, Few showers, Gentle Westerly wind

Over, Hartpury and Maisemore 17th January 2010

The early hours of this morning, UK time, saw the start of the Tour Down Under.  A 51Km criterium in Adelaide won by Greg Henderson of Team Sky in their first professional race in a time of 1h and 4 minutes.  Congratulations to Greg and Team Sky.  Early this afternoon saw Anthony and I, slightly less glamorously trudging round the lanes of Gloucestershire.  In a similar time, we covered 27Km.  But then, Greg didn't stop to take pictures.  I'm not bitter, I am a big fan of Team Sky, after all they are almost Team GB.  You can follow them here if you are interested.
Here, we have had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks and a number of other commitments along with a general malaise have kept me not riding since before Christmas.  Today came with the promise of sunny spells and temperatures reaching a blistering 10C.  I was starting to miss the bike so to scratch a metaphorical itch, Anthony and I headed out of Gloucester.  As you are aware if you have read any of my previous blogs, I have decided to gain photographic evidence of my rides.  First stop was the 19th Century Telford bridge over the Severn, superceded in 1975 by the new bridge although still open as a footbridge and maintained by English Heritage.

Heading on further out, we took the road towards Newent, turning off to Hartpury where, to my surprise, the fields were under water.  In this picture, you can see across the River Leadon at Wedderburn which is normally, quite frankly, little more than a trickle, across the fields to Hartpury church (more of this in the next paragraph) and the old water mill.  We then crossed the bridge and headed towards Hartpury proper.  Hartpury is, of course, famous for the college but more interesting (if you're me anyway) is the Church of St Mary the Virgin and the rather splendid 15th Century tithe barn, shown in the two pictures following.

This route encompasses some parts from routes I have been using for some time as an easy route because it is largely flat, or so I thought.  However it seems that since last summer someone has ripped out the stretch of road out of Hartpury and towards Maisemore with the climb to Mont Ventoux.  The road through Maisemore back into the city is still a lovely gentle dowhill.

Now, it may be that I am less fit than I was in the summer.  It may be that I should have invested a little time servicing the bikes before kick off, it may be that the last few weeks of idleness took their toll today.  But you know something is wrong when your stomach is permanently resting on the top of your thigh when you are riding on the hoods. Still, my little heart rate monitor suggested I used something like 800 calories, that means I can squeeze in that extra Mars Bar.

Total distance - 27Km

Average Speed - 24 KM/h

Weather - about 10C, Fine, sunnyish, Gentle SouthWesterly wind

Witcombe and Brockworth 26 November 2009

As you might expect for the time of year, another wet chilly day but undaunted, another local ride.

Simple ride this one, takes in both Little Witcombe which is a pretty little place with St Mary's Church as the kind of epicentre, a proper picturesque village church.  Behind the church, though not accessible from the village by bike are the Witcombe reservoirs which in turn lead on the Roman Villa where I was in an earlier blog.  Good walk through there but not accessible on a bike, I suspect that access is footpath only.  Be aware that a large part of the Witcombes area is still agricultural and doesn't see much regular traffic, therefore, particularly in the wet the roads can be covered in mud and less savoury deposits.  Can be quite slippy.

Leaving little Witcombe, you could head off uphill towards Birdlip.  It is a proper uphill and one that shouldn't be tackled by a fat unfit middle aged man.  I therefore head off out through Great Witcombe onto the Shurdington road and back towards Churchdown, returning towards Gloucester via Brockworth Road where next stop is St George's church.  However before we get onto that, let me tell you a little about my cycle computer.  It is a Trek Incite 11I.  Apart from the normal functions, speed, time distance, etc it also shows cadence.  It is a few years old and is on it's third battery, I believe.  It has suffered the rigours of my riding and the weather but on this ocassion it surpassed itself.  Rather cack handed, i knocked it off the bracket trying to change the function.  I watched it bounce on the road before being run over by a car.  Bugger.  The damage - the displays reset and a couple of scars.  Plug it back in and it works like nothing happened.

So to St George's, Brockworth's parish church sits between the Tithe barn and allotments just on the edge of the village and was, incidentally, the venue for my first marriage.  I don't hold that against the place, it is still everything a parish church should be.

Total distance - 20Km

Average Speed - 24 KM/h

Weather - about 10C, Rain, South Westerly wind

Churchdown and Brockworth 24th November 2009

The description of this ride and the numbers at the bottom don't even start to tell the story of this ride.  If you read the previous entry about Witcombe, you'd have thought I'd have learnt a lesson.  I haven't.  My walking routes don't necessarily make good riding routes.

I don't know how familiar you are with Churchdown, nestling as it does on the outskirts of Gloucester.  Churchdown has the outstandingly beautiful St Bartholomew's Church at the top of the hill.  I'm not sure if you picked up on the salient point there.  When I say top of the hill, it does have a road of sorts leading up to it and that's the way I rode.  The road takes the most direct route from bottom to top, i.e. straight, no deviation.  Whilst walking to it from any direction, you can meander up and round the hill, the road is different.  Add to this the fact that it is pouring with rain and the road surface is about as slippy as it gets, I manage to wheelspin my bike several times on the way up.  And don't be lulled into a false sense of security, the trip down is pretty hairy in such conditions as well.  I don't know if the picture can do it justice.

But, moaning aside, if you make the effort, the views from the top and of the church itself are well worth it, although again, I doubt the pictures do it justice.  A little further round are a couple of reservoirs and an old transmitter station still used for BBC Radio Gloucestershire, I believe.

Total distance - 18Km

Average Speed - 23 KM/h

Weather - about 10C, Rain, South Westerly wind.

Witcombe and Twigworth 9th November 2009

I make no apologies that this post is more or less a copy of another post in an earlier blog, but hey, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.  This is a retelling of my first ride for a while, having discovered the delights of slowing the pace down somewhat.

Weather was OK so I thought it would be rather pleasant to go have lunch at Witcombe Roman Villa, just a couple of miles from the office. Now, I rather like the villa, it is always peaceful and very picturesque. I have been there many times before although only in the car or by walking across the Cotswold way in dry weather. Never did it occur to me that the access road is, essentially, a working farm track. My bicycle is a lovely slick racing machine with tyres no wider than a gnat's pube. It now looks like a rough old cyclo-cross thing.

Plenty of time to spare so next off through Bentham and Shurdington before passing around Cheltenham and Down Hatherley and returning down Tewkesbury Road stopping off at the very picturesque St Lawrence's Church, Twigworth where WWI poet Ivor Guerney is buried

Still, a pleasant meander, 25ish miles and feeling the affects after not riding for a few weeks. Reminds me of a David Letterman interview with Lance Armstrong after winning his 487th (or thereabouts) Tour de France:

"So Lance, how do you feel after winning the tour again"

"I've got a sore arse Dave"

There ends the similarity.

Total distance - 40Km

Average Speed - 22 KM/h

Weather - about 5C, showers, Northerly wind.