Over the back, through the Obelisk Spinney to The Whyte Melville in Boughton to meet up with veteran members of CTC Northampton.
Portrait bust of George John Whyte-Melville snapped when I visited the National Portrait Gallery last month.
Over the back, through the Obelisk Spinney to The Whyte Melville in Boughton to meet up with veteran members of CTC Northampton.
Portrait bust of George John Whyte-Melville snapped when I visited the National Portrait Gallery last month.
To The Forum Cinema to meet up with CTC Northampton to see The Armstrong Lie; then onto The Bold Dragoon for Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and home.
Much easier today in that I was going to cycle to a meeting anyway!
So the ride on Day 3 was to a committee meeting of CTC Northampton, the local member group of the UK’s Cyclists’ Touring Club. And via a little bit of shopping at my local supermarket, Waitrose in Kingsthorpe.
I’m having a little bit of an argument / complaint / polite discussion with the supermarket. They have reduced the number of cycle-racks and moved them away from a window where they could be seen from the café inside the store. I’ve now had a couple of conversations with the customer service people and their manager.
I took a photo and posted it on social media.
Here are some of the comments that followed:
1 That’s a bit disappointing. I would have thought that Waitrose had a sustainability officer who should be encouraging and incorporating green efforts from their customers. Better signage might help and also better bike racks. CCTV, space for cargo bikes,panniers etc (I saw better examples of units at The London Bike show so will go check my blog for a reminder) Also removing the trolleys rather than the allocated space would be my expected approach, not the other way round. Waitrose do listen to their customers so perhaps if enough peeps requested cycle storage they might consider it? Here’s hoping…!
2 My local branch knew all about the free bike-trailer scheme operated by their Chichester branch!
3 Our local Waitrose removed the bike racks from a covered area to put trolleys there that were previously in the store foyer. I complained but they said tough, there was bike parking elsewhere (in a narrow section unprotected from the rain). I always leave Alfie where the old bike racks were, freestanding of course! (A reference to a recumbent trike.)
4 No bike racks. No trolley scheme. Not up round ours, Nothing on the plans for the new store either, and it will be ‘wrong’ side of town centre race track DC too. grrr.
5 Bike parking at my local Waitrose is ropey as well. I don’t give a damn because I park my bike IN the trolley. Actually, if they were really serious about the sustainability thing, they should launch guarded bike parking.
The assistant brought the manager to me and said to him, “This gentlemen always cycles here. Sometimes he brings his foldy bike in. Sometimes he parks a proper bike. He’s a regular customer.” To be honest, I hadn’t noticed the lady before! Loved the foldy/proper distinction she made!
Today, I was on the foldy bke. Spoke to the manager (he was excited by the bike; I don’t think he’d seen a Brompton before; he was really interested!). The store was empty.
And then it was on to my meeting where another member is taking a different approach. Instead of complaining to Waitrose, he’s been complaining to the County Council as the planning authority. When the shopping centre was built, he wondered, did planning permission include the provision of a certain number of bike racks? Can they be reduced by the supermarket without consultation? Have they broken the planning agreement? I hadn’t thought of that line of reasoning!
Really the meeting is about planning weekend rides and social events – and seeking opportunities to promote cycling. But, once in a while, our campaigning side comes out!
Summary Day 3 – Bike: Brompton, Distance: 4 miles, Total: 8 miles. Weather: cloudy evening with hint of rain after the meeting. Route here on RideWithGPS. I did ride home afterwards!
I attended a meeting of Northamptonshire County Council’s Cabinet for their discussion of the re-opening of Abington Street in Northampton town centre to traffic.
This was the first ride I’d done with my local CTC for some months and so I’m linking to my report here:
Ride Report – Sunday 5th January
Really enjoyed the ride – great company!
I break off from the accounts of The Fridays in Normandy to tell you about yesterday’s Audax from Oundle (Northamptonshire).
Organised by Richard Daniells on behalf of CTC Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes – and within the rules of Audax UK – this was a 100k event starting and finishing at the Joan Strong Centre in Oundle. I was bang on time with my preparations for the start and so didn’t have any spare time to count the number of participants, let alone say hello!
Riders were responsible for finding their own way, following a detailed route sheet. Naturally, everything looks better in good sunshine but the route was actually delightful. And the instructions were very accurate. To ensure the route is followed there was one manned control (at Grafham Water) and three information controls – where you answer a simple question based on observation at junctions. It’s not a race; it’s a tour within certain time limits. Today, the time limits were to complete the route between 3 hours 22 minutes and 8 hours 5 minutes. No racing, no places, just touring.
The first part took riders out from Oundle to Grafham Water, going east and south. There was an early information control at Lutton less than 10k from the start and by that time riders were well spaced out.
Then the high point for me of the route: pedalling through Little Gidding, the hamlet that gives its name to the title of the fourth of T S Eliot’s great last set of poetry, “Four Quartets”. And there was the smallest of boards advertising an Eliot Festival over the weekend, presumably at the house associated with the seventeenth-century Anglican community established by Nicholas Ferrar. It must have been cycle touring through the hamlet, on a journey from Oundle, that inspired Thomas Stearns Eliot to write (“Little Gidding”, section 1, lines 21-23):
If you came this way,
Taking the route you would be likely to take
From the place you would be likely to come from …
Anyway, it wasn’t long and I was at Grafham Water, meeting up with friendly faces and enjoying beans on toast to propel me through the second half of the ride, west and north back to Oundle. Two information controls on this part – the first just before Keysoe and the second in Riseley – before joining the River Nene at Aldwincle and cycling that lovely part back to Oundle.
Which of course inspired the poet to write (“Little Gidding”, section 5, lines 1-3)
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
The poem culminates of course with the motto of the cycle tourist (“Little Gidding”, section 5, lines 26-29)
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
A great day out! You can find my route here. I completed the route, including my refreshment stop at Grafham Water in 5 hours 15 minutes. The time on the bike was 4 hours 22 minutes.
Oh dear, I didn’t bike for 30 Days! But I did bike in five different countries (England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany).
I’ve borrowed my friend Iain Dawson’s words – and then added my own photographs – to describe (on the sister blog to this) our ride, as CTC Northampton, to meet up with our new “twin” organisation, ADFC Aachen in Germany.
You’ll find them here:
I’d like to express deep personal thanks to Sabine Neitzel, a lovely cyclist in Aachen who took in Alex and myself – two unknown cyclists – and looked after us for five days. Sabine, you are magnificent!
With my friend Iain D, I went for a lovely ride around London last Saturday. We rode our Bromptons to Northampton station, caught the 0850 and we were at Euston in under an hour. The purpose? To recce a ride we’ll offer to CTC Northampton in the summer.
I’d therefore better not, at this stage, disclose our route in detail. Suffice to say that we are old-school – no fancy GPS gizmos on our handlebars; Iain D had worked out a route and written it down; I’d added one or two amendments and pinned my copy to my ‘bars (small print, though, so I had to wear my reading glasses throughout the day!).
The route is a mixture of main “tourist sights” (but they do look different from a bicycle saddle) and some obscure and eccentric sights (which are well worth seeking out). It will be much appreciated, I’m sure. Some uncaptioned photographic clues:
And shortly after photographing Virginia, we encountered this!
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-the-month/March2013.htm
Isn’t it brilliant?
Well, that’s it for the moment. I hope I’ve tickled your curiosity buds!
We caught a very fast train back from Euston, the 1649 gets into Northampton at 1741 – 52 minutes.
This afternoon I went along to my local university (the main campus of the University of Northampton is less than five minutes away) at the invitation of Dan Romberg who is Sustrans’ university officer there. With a colleague who works in local schools, he has a project to reduce congestion in the “Kingsthorpe corridor”. With two other CTC friends – John and Phil L – I was to help him lead a group ride out to, and then along, the Brampton Valley Way. The individuals who made up the group were staff members from the university, most of whom lived locally and might be helped to make a decision to cycle to work rather than always travelling by car.
It was a great afternoon! Sustrans has found the money for half-a-dozen new hybrid bikes. (By coincidence from Pitsford Cycles where my touring bike is presently being serviced.) We collected them from a secure bike park and this was to be their first outing. Dan had checked them in advance and my job was to adjust the saddle height for the riders who chose them. When the ride started, I was Tail-End Charlie.
We went out through the quiet roads of two or three housing estates (including the one where I live) with just a short stretch of 300 metres along the A508 before turning onto a great downhill down Brampton Lane. Hats went flying!
We re-grouped at the start of the Brampton Valley Way.
and then there was no stopping anyone! One or two stretches of the path, where it was exposed, were bitterly cold but in the sheltered parts (which form the majority) it was lovely and … sunny!
Our leader, Dan!
We passed the restored Pitsford railway and the Merry Tom crossing and almost reached the Brixworth-to-Spratton road – before someone remembered that a pub stop had been promised! We turned about and pedalled to an old favourite, “The Windhover”. The first puncture (someone had been flailing hedges and there were thorns aplenty) happened just before the pub. The rider manfully carried on until it could be repaired indoors!
Well-earned refreshment
Dan was a whizz at repairing the puncture inside the pub. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.
And then, finding a quiet way back to the university, our second puncture happened just having left the pub. Dan was even faster at getting that one repaired. John had chosen a route that didn’t take in too much hill climbing although, because we’d all enjoyed the chatter in the pub, dusk was upon us. The Sustrans bikes had lights and so all was well.
Everyone had enjoyed themselves, agreed that the exercise had been good fun, and some were enquiring about other organised rides – and indeed the possibility of cycling to work once or twice a week!
Part of the route – from the University to The Windhover is here.
A great afternoon!