Churchdown, Docks 17th March 2010

Firstly, I feel I should apologise.  A statement I find myself using far too often for far too many reasons.  The reason for today's apology however is the huge delay between my ride and blogging about it; a full week and more none less.  I could reel off a list of excuses but won't.  Just be thankful for what you get!
Today's ride was, once again, based on a commute.  However, the journey into Hucclecote had no stops so effectively, we will start the blog there.

Leaving Hucclecote, I travelled North East along Churchdown Lane.  A quick glance to the right here is the site of Hucclecote rugby ground and the former Hucclecote secondary school, now a council run training centre.  A couple of thousands years previously, the site of Hucclecote Roman Villa.  No pictures though.  There is nothing left.  Not visible or above ground anyway.  Carrying on takes us uphill towards Churchdown hill.  I turn right into the village of Churchdown and stop at the Parish Church of St Andrew, so called because it was agreed and commissioned on St Andrew's day around 1900.   It is actually the Parish or St Bartholomew and St Andrew.  You may remember St Bartholomew's church from a previous blog.  I did mention that St Bart's is atop quite a significant hill and stood there for best part of a thousand years.  It seems quite a long time to realise that this caused problems for the elderly and infirm but realise they did and so 100 years ago St Andrew's was born.  And a very good job too.  Churchdown is an old village, dating back to at least the 16th century and, judging by St Bart's much further and this 'new' church must have fitted right in to the local area.  The second picture also shows that, in common with St Lawrence, Barnwood, there is a very recent addition for community activities.

At this point, I carry on through the village and leave Churchdown by the 'other centre'.  This is at the cross roads with the Old Cheltenham Road.  On the Churchdown side, on one side of the road is Churchdown's third Church of England parish church, the Church of St John the Evangelist.  By my reckoning, for a population of about 10000, that's just greedy. I must admit, I know less than nothing about this church and a quick Google (other search engines are available) search seems to give me just a load of broken links so here goes some gratuitous guessing.  I may not be an expert on ecclesiastical architecture, but I'm guessing the building isn't quite as old as many of our parish churches.  In fact, I'd be surprised if it dates much later than the end of the last World War.  My best guess is that it was originally built to serve the newer part of Churchdown and neighbouring Innsworth which were originally built about the same time.  The three churches are, I believe, all linked by the Churches Together local initiative.  I'm willing to be disproved on any part of this, particularly if you are the vicar of any of these churches.  One of you must be reading my blog some time.  Don't you do random Google searches on the Church name?  The other side of the road is the very typical local pub, the Hare and Hounds.  A regular haunt when I worked in nearby Staverton.

Crossing straight over, I do indeed head into Innsworth.  Much of the village having been built up around what was formerly RAF Innsworth but is now the multi-force base Imjin Barracks.  I risked prosecution and worse to take a snap of the entry gates.  For the second picture here, I turned 180 degrees and took a somewhat different snap.  If evidence of Gloucester being built on farming were ever needed, this shows arable land still in use and looks across the housing estate built for the forces personnel.

Leaving Innsworth, I rode through Longlevens, on out to Longford, skirted around the City Centre onto the new bypass passing behind the docks, stopping at Llanthony Secunda Priory.  Until recently, the priory stood very much on its own.  Recently, it has been encroached upon by the Quays development and new Sainsburys.  A very brief potted history of the site will not do it justice but let's try anyway.  The original Augustinian Priory dates back to the 12th century, as an offshoot of Llanthony Prima in Wales.  Very little of this remains, particularly since the fire in the 14th century.  Most of the surviving structure is from after this date.  The priory was, as you might expect, dissolved by Henry VIII.  The priory spent much time as a private residence before again taking a beating in the civil war.  It wasn't until the 19th century that the site was redeveloped and the more modern buildings that you can see were built.  These buildings saw a number of uses before being sold by the railways to the City Council in the 1970s.
Like I say, a potted history and I'm sure I will be lambasted for accuracy by someone who has written a book on local history.

Still, back on the bike, over St Annes's bridge - which, incidentally, hasn't made its way onto Google maps yet, and home along Bristol Road.

Total distance - 30Km

Average Speed - 27 KM/h

Weather - about 12C, Dry, Light southerly wind.

Elmbridge, Docks 16th March 2010

Brief report this one and a sort of addendum to my last entry but with a couple of differences.  This time, I have swapped my road bike for mountain bike and am joined by the good lady wife.  Use of the mountain bike will become apparent later.  Elmbridge sits sort of north west of Barnwood and the two blur into one.  Having cause to be in this part of Gloucester, we took the opportunity to bring the bikes and a camera and have a bimble.  I shan't be doing the normal distance and average speed thing at the end, just a guess because I don't believe the readings my computer was giving.  At one stage it suggested an average of  >200KM/h, and I'm not that good, before rapidly dropping to 3KM/h and I'm not that bad.  So any readings taken with a healthy pinch of salt.

For blog's sake, we are starting at Armscroft Park.  The Armscroft area/estate sits as a sort of border between Elmbridge and Barnwood. Armscroft Park has been a part of this area for ever and is now a part of the rather good, in my opinion  at least, Gloucestershire Park & Open Spaces scheme.  It is also now right on the edge of the redevelopment area that has been touted for some time by the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration scheme.  It is also home to Gloucester Old Boys Rugby club.  This end of the park sits right by the level crossing area near Gloucestershire Royal hospital.  A small stream runs through the park and appears to have had the banks reinforced with overgrown wicker baskets.

Leaving the park, we cycle into the City Centre.  This doesn't feature much in the blog for a couple of reasons.  Primarily, you can't cycle round the City centre very much, rightly or wrongly.  Also, there is such a concentration of interesting stuff the blog would become a full time job.  Finally, most of the interesting history and buildings are covered by readily available books.  For a small fee, I would recommend The Story Of Gloucester if you are interested in such things.  Business done, time for a short bimble to the docks, or rather the Quays as it prefers to be known.  The new development here which is largely based on a large outlet shopping centre and hotel complex has polarised local opinion.  Just look at the comments pages attached to any vaguely related story in the local news web site.  The neigh sayers and doom mongers will come out in force.  Personally, I think it is fantastic.  It has regenerated the area, I'm sure there are things that could have been different but on the whole it has breathed life into a formerly run down ex industrial area.  It is a shame in a way, but there is little call now for goods to be transported by canal so to turn it into a leisure and shopping facility whilst blending in, more or less sympathetically, with the historic areas is good.  There are, as you can see in this picture, some of the derelict warehouses still standing empty and run down.  Whilst you could easily and reasonably argue they are an eyesore they also provide a powerful nod back to the history of the area.

From left to right, this picture shows the edge of the new Sainsburys, the blue and white of Gloucestershire College, St Anne's Way bridge right in the centre.  Behind the bridge, is the earliest dock basin with the renovated warehouses in the background, a bit of squinting and you should just about be able to see the Cathedral right at the back.  On round to the right of the picture are the derelict warehouses and behind them the new Quays development.  Of course, the canal is in the foreground.

Following a well earned coffee in Sainsburys cafe, overlooking the docks (and from where these pictures were taken), the trip home is only a couple of kilometres along the canal towpath.  This has largely been cleared in recent years and provides a very pleasant route; although more suited to a mountain bike.

Total distance - Probably about 15Km

Average Speed - Who knows?  But probably less than 200 KM/h

Weather - about 12C, Dry, Southerly wind.

Robinswood, Saintbridge, Barnwood 11th March 2010

 Following on from previous weeks stupid venture into the hills, this entry fits altogether gentler criteria.  I make no apologies, the places on this blog are a shameless trip down memory lane for me.  Having just turned 40, a little nostalgia is in order.  Not to mention some flat riding.

11th March was actually a commute to and from work.  Direct route this would be about 5 miles each way so we aren't going to cover much mileage.  I headed to work along Reservoir road where we used to live and turned via Matson into Saintbridge where my brother and I went to secondary school.  Not far from the school is my first stop.  The balancing pond.  Or when were kids, it was always referred to as 'the reservoir' or, more often 'the resy'.  We were firmly of the belief that despite being best part of a kilometre away, it gave reservoir road its name.  It didn't of course.  More of that later.  It did however, provide one of the places that I would spend all day, get soaking wet and filthy dirty before going home and being in trouble for being late.  The other, being where Reservoir road did get its name from - more about that later.  I digress, the balancing pond is a well presented area now surrounded by Abbeydale estate, or Heron as people of a certain age will remember it.  It hasn't changed much except that there are speed traps for oiks on bikes now and I'm sure the duck population is more interesting, as evidenced by the Canada geese.

A quick journey then through Coney Hill for no other reason than my photographic pit-stop meant I was well on course for being late for work.  Which brings me to my next picture.  The office I work in is right on the main road and in the middle of what is now a large housing estate.  On the opposite corner, almost ignored, is a war memorial.






Not much riding for the next few hours, time to work instead, boo hiss.

The route home sees me heading towards Barnwood where the first stop is the Norman parish church of St Lawrence with additional building for community activities built right up to the start of this decade.  As I arrive, the lady vicar is bidding farewell to a significant group of primary school children and their teachers.  I wheel my bike into churchyard and wait for them to disperse before approaching the vicar and confirming the group were indeed from Barnwood primary, the school I attended from approx. 1976 to 1979.  I remember these visits and feel slightly warm and fuzzy that things haven't changed.


A couple of points of interest on the outside and in the churchyard are a couple of sarcophagi dating back to the 18th century and more carved graffiti.  Although the graffiti artist in this case was good enough to date his work.


St Lawrence Church is located on the west side of Church Lane.  Right opposite is Barnwood Park and Arboretum.  Originally part of the landscaped grounds of the old Barnwood House Hospital where poet Ivor Gurney was once a resident.  When I was a kid, this was 'just' a park.  It has had some work done to it and is now a buzzing nature reserve and arboretum.

Curiously, slap bang in the middle of the park is a church.  Or rather was a church, it is now a gym.  A quick trawl through the internet, I can find no evidence of it as an active church although a nagging feeling tells me it may have been St Lukes, anyone who has information to support or on the contrary, feel free to post. I am in two minds about this new use of the church.  Whilst the original builders would have built with a passion and to the glory of God, at least the building has some use.  I do remember it being in a very sorry state and a magnet for the local winos, and, after all, if you want to go to church there is a lively active parish church on the other side of the road.  Oh, and the graffiti here is decidedly 21st century.

Continuing south, I quickly arrive again at Coney Hill and the parish church of St Oswald.  I must admit, I didn't realise this even existed before today, it sits behind the crematorium.  And I know absolutely nothing about it.  Even the building is quite non-descript.  I guess it is from early-ish 20th century which would tie in with Coney Hill becoming a district and parish in its own right.  Here is a picture, make your own mind up before I go and find out.  Unless of course you are the vicar there and feel like dropping me a line.  It would be appreciated.

So back on to Reservoir Road where we started the day.  And I did promise you the source of the name of the road and the other place in my childhood where I would spend the day getting dirty.  Reservoir road runs gradually uphill to the entrance to the country park on Robinswood Hill.  As a kid, it was normal to spend the entire day on the hill, jumping down or climbing up the quarry, fishing for sticklebacks in the ponds and getting home wet, muddy and late.  Going back even further than my childhood, the local religious orders tapped into the natural springs to provide a water supply.  Now, as a reminder, behind the Wildlife trust building is Well Cross which, rather self explanatory, is or rather was, a well in the shape of a cross.

Some years later, with a greater need for water, two reservoirs were formed at the foot of the hill, these were full until the 1940s and gave Reservoir Road its name.  They have since been filled in.  One now forms the car park and wildlife trust area. The other, in the 80s was  turned into a BMX track.  Now it is more of a lumpy hole in the ground.

Total distance - 20Km

Average Speed - 24 KM/h

Weather - about 12C, Dry, Southerly wind.

Sheepscombe, Cranham, 9th March 2010

I really should have learnt my lesson by now.  I am, I know, overweight and unfit.  I may have never been to Sheepscombe village before but I have spent enough time around the Cotswolds to know that when you go to the villages set in the hills, the ups are quite steep.  I can also read a map.  I should know that the little chevrons on Ordnance Survey maps don't show indicate one way streets.  But I insist on hauling myself over them.

Today's ride, in case you haven't guessed involves going up.  Heading out of Hucclecote, into Brockworth, I discovered from the map that Green Street takes you up near Prinknash Abbey and the foot of Coopers Hill.  That's the first challenge.  The latter half of the lane kicks up somewhat.  Turning right onto Painswick Road I continued towards Prinknash where I was in my previous entry.  Passing the visitor entry to the park, I took a detour onto the locally infamous Portway, a 1:5 hill that leads straight down to Upton-St Leonards.  You may get some idea of the gradient from this picture.  I didn't go far as my main purpose was to take the access road into St Peter's Grange so I could get some better shots than before.  Alas, it seems that the entrance has been gated and locked some three years now in order to preserve the monastic buildings and the monk's lifestyle.  As I was stopped to take photos, a monk came out from these gates and greeted me with a cheery "Hello".  I guessed that they weren't a silent order so I responded likewise.  Then it occurred to me to try to be a little cheekier.
"Is there no public access to the Grange from here now?  I was hoping for some good pictures"
"No afraid not, it's a protected building now"
"Shame.  Is there no way I can just sneak in, take a few snaps and sneak out again.  No-one will be any the wiser."
"There are a couple of ways you could go in"
A-ha!
"You could book in for a retreat"
Ah.
"Or we will always consider the monastic lifestyle!"
That struck me as an extreme way to get some snaps so I thanked him for his time and made my way off, happy in the knowledge that monks have a sense of humour.

Back onto Painswick Road and up.  Left turn after a short while towards Sheepscombe and some seriously narrow seriously steep roads.  There is a sign as you enter the village warning of 1:8 hills but with a groundless sense of bravado I plug on.  Sheepscombe, as it happens, is a very typical small cotswold village.  That being said, except there are no Yorkshire accents, it could equally be the set of Emmerdale Farm.  Strangely, I expect Sheepscombe to have a Norman square tower type church.  But I'm wrong.  Very.  The church of St. John The Apostle dates back no further than early 19th Century presumably a monument of the textiles and milling trades that were prevelant in the area at that time.  That takes nothing away from it.  The church is in an idyllic location and enjoys some fantastic views.  As the pictures hopefully demonstrate, there is a separate memorial and graveyard with it's own small lych gate.














Graveyard to the side of the church.

Looking down the hill to the 'overflow' graveyard and memorial.






Leaving Sheepscombe to rejoin the Slad Road which will lead me back to Cranham, surprise, surprise is a steep uphill.  Damn those little chevrons.

I take the road to the South of Cranham common and through the village.  After the steep up and down nature of the village, the road across to Cranham is a pleasant long flat stretch, although one is quite exposed and there is quite a breeze blowing across the hills.  Turning left towards Cranham is a long reasonably steep downhill but not particularly quick unless you have balls of steel.  The road is narrow with sharp drops to the right and roads and driveways joining it.  The downhill doesn't last long before you are climbing again.  At the next crest, I am overtaking by a petrol tanker who meets another coming the other way.  Self preservation takes over and I pull in to the entrance to a field to enjoy the view across the fields towards Painswick.

That's not the only good view here either.  After yet another 1:8 to this point, this sign is probably the best view you could wish for.  This does mark the end of the ride in some respects.  From here it is more or less all downhill although the Painswick Road back into Brockworth is quite windy and will rattle the fillings out of your teeth in places.  Return is back past Prinknash, into Brockworth and taking Ermin Street back into Hucclecote.

Total distance - 25 KM

Average Speed - 22 KM/h

Weather - Approx 7C, mostly sunny.  Northerley wind.

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