The Place of Steep Hills

Charlie’s bad leg must have recovered because this is an easy ride – or was meant to be.  Blackrod’s Steep Hills come in for criticism (David Miller take note) and the potholed road to Blackrod – complete with duck ponds – is where our hero falls off and smashes his headlamp.  Remember this lamp, because he in later years upgraded to   ‘a two Bob Lucas’ – a move from carbide power to battery.

In later years this same potholed and duck ponded road was subsequently renamed the A6 to form part of the main road from London to Carlisle and Glasgow !

Tweeting on the internet……

So another coffee and more pondering on how to introduce Charlie Chadwick to new people led me to the intriguing world of Twitter.   My teenage daughter#2 was kind enough to get me started and has tried to educate me in the ‘etiquette’ of Tweeting and Following (who said teenagers were no use for anything) and as a result I have gradually been increasing the number of followers on Charlie’s Twitter feed.  Hopefully, most of them then come to have a peek at this site and then stay a while to discover Charlie’s wonderful drawings and stories.

Twitter is definitely a world of ‘snap’ judgements as you must base your decision to ‘follow’ on very little information.  The profile and cover pictures offer a large clue and anyone with a bicycle against the backdrop of a beautiful scenic view would seem, to me,  to have the potential to enjoy Charlie’s work.  I have enjoyed many of the descriptions people have made for themselves, trying to encapsulate their personalities and interests in just a few words.  Humans are so creative….I am very impressed!

My first instinct was always to think that cyclists are so busy out with their bicycles exploring the countryside that they wouldn’t have the time or inclination to be surfing the net, but just like Charlie, they clearly have wide and varied interests and talents.  And, for technology minded souls, they can take their internet access with them on their bikes too, using mobile phones and WiFi, so that they can Tweet from mountain tops and coffee shops.

However you found your way here, a very warm welcome to all.

Cheshire Circular – Searching for Arley Mere

I should like to take this opportunity to remind readers that until Charlie reached the age of about 20 or a little beyond, his parents put an absolute block on his setting out if it was raining.  Can you imagine parents trying to achieve that level of control today ?

Well it seems to have stayed dry for the rest of the day – but Arley Mere remains undiscovered for now, although other Mere’s were observed.  But the mere fact of being in the Cheshire lanes was recompense enough, surely.

An Extremely Pretty Run

This route has some very pretty scenery for an evening’s run, with a bit of everything, country lanes, lakes, quite steep hills and a very fast finish.  What Charlie does not tell us about covering five and a half miles in 15 minutes, is that apart from a 200 yard uphill slope it is all downhill, furthermore, unlike today, there were no traffic lights passing through Bolton.

I suppose we should let him off though, he had a heavy ‘delivery boy’ type bike with no gears and straight handlebars which he made do with until the Spring of 1925 – Bless.

Overdue re-vamp of ‘The Books’

This section of the website has been overdue for a refresh for some considerable time now – but at long last I’ve been able to get to it. Highlights are

  • Separate pages for each of the volumes one and two
  • Updated the cover image for volume 1 – now uses the image from the 2nd Edition
Unfortunately I am still in negotiation with David about what information it might be possible to ‘leak’ to you about the work that is currently in hand for volumes three and four – so I’ve had to hold those pages back for now. However, I can tell you that work is well in hand and I hope to have some more news for you soon.