Sunday, 13 December 1925 The Street

Post:       A nice gentle day for Charlie, recovering from his eye problem, and starting with his black protective eye patch.  But instead of recuperating, he must have thought, hang it, I’m going to enjoy myself today, and got stuck in !!

Sunday, December 13                                     The Street and Goyt Dale

I journeyed across to Tom’s yesterday afternoon, just for the half day, on my bike, for I was not sure that cycling would do my eye any good just yet.  But when I got astride the dear old machine, feeling the jolting road and the twirling pedals, the eye was forgotten in the ecstasy of the returning joy of cycling – my insatiable craving was at once satisfied, and I immediately felt part and parcel of the machine – the little, lively, low-geared lightweight.  I felt free once more – ‘Free! Free!! Free!!!’  And to feel free and unharnessed, to feel that your only master is the Road, to feel that you would not bow to any man on earth, or be subject to no will but your own, get on a real light bicycle – and the world is yours to conquer – you feel you made it speed along the road via Trafford Park to Manchester.

I felt at home immediately with the city traffic and soon reached Tom’s place.  I was asked to stay – Tom had to meet Joe at Kingsway End, 9.30am.  Then I fell – in short I wanted so badly to spend the day in the hills of East Cheshire that I decided to let the eye take care of itself, and go.  And I went, and the eye took care of itself so well, that it is better than ever despite the wintry conditions.  Which all goes to show that cycling is beneficial, in more ways than one.

We got up sleepily enough at 7am, and at 9am made a start.  The morning was very cold, our noses ripening in a short time.  Neither of us are without.  Needless to say, by a sordid jumble of streets and factories and tramcar lines – and setts, we reached Kingsway End just on time.  Joseph was shading the watchman’s fire when we rolled up, and yielding to the overwhelming temptation, we joined him.  We paid for it when we restarted along Wilmslow road.  At Handforth we turned into the lanes and passed into a glittering fairyland.

Nature was robed in a new silvery dress – fascinating to my eyes which had been bored with the dullness of life at home.  A lively pace was kept up, and we were soon skirting the end of pretty little Prestbury, crossing the frosty highway and climbing up to the white roofed town of Bollington.  Here, Joe aroused the inhabitants – and us – with a skid off Tom’s back wheel – Tom always seems to be implicated with Joe’s skids (which are numerous).  Right again, and we were soon on the long trail onto the roof of Cheshire, which was lost to sight in mist.  Seasonably enough, a blinding snowstorm made its appearance, and soon the road disappeared beneath a white mantle.  It was glorious.  We tramped on in the teeth of it; I put a shade over my bad eye for protection, but the eye protested vigorously and I found it more comfortable without it.  Besides which, the shade being black, Joe called me ‘Captain Bones’ and Tom thought ‘Long John Silver’ more appropriate.  I hate the sight of eyeshades now!

When we were able to ride a bit, Joe thought we had reached the top, but was soon disillusioned.  The beggar about this thing, he complained, was that there seemed no possible way for the road to go up – being on what seemed the highest point, but yet it kept on climbing.  Joe has not yet learned that this is an elusive habit that Derbyshire and East Cheshire byways have, and the moral to be drawn from it is, ‘Never expect the summit on a Derbyshire road’.  We stood at Patch House, hungry, and half decided to go inside for lunch, but Tom urged us on.  Had we known what was to happen, we might have stayed at Patch House!  Down now, in the cutting snowflakes to Blue Boar Farm, along that narrow road to the corkscrew, where we had more than one slippery sensation on that super descent to Saltersford Valley.  The climb past Saltersford Chapel to the Street, on Cat’s Tor was terribly slow – and warm despite the snow.  Our inner men cried long and often for food, a snack only served to enhance the hunger, and the road climbed one hill after another, the snow snowed, I got absolutely leg-weary (I had not ridden for five weeks and was badly out of condition).  At long last, the lone signpost heralded the summit, and I halted to change over to freewheel, then started again, and got a real fright.  I got going downhill, on a surface of ice and boulders; I put my brakes on, but they wouldn’t stop me.  I had a real job to stop, too, and was ‘skidding all over the shop’.  I changed back right away to fixed, and found it the only safe and effective brake.  Freewheel is alright in its place, but on the roads that we experienced that Sunday, a freewheel is a positive danger.  There were times when a touch of either back or front brake would have sent us flying, but when the ‘fixed’ gave us complete safety.  Which goes to demonstrate that ‘fixed and free’ are the ideal combination.

Then came a steady, rather steep descent down the Roman Road, which is called ‘The Street’, running, I believe, between Derby and Manchester (I am not sure though).  We agreed heartily that it has not been repaired since the Legions created a lot of potholes.  Boulders, frozen lumps of clay, streams frozen solid, and biting sleet made for us a rough passage, but lower down where it reached Goyt Valley, the scenery made us forget the hard road.  Oh, it was wonderful!  Imagine a woodland glade, the ground a soft white carpet, the brown tree trunks holding little gleaming patches of snow, the branches covered with delicate flakes, every rush and blade of grass and twig was covered.  Really fairylike it looked.

We reached Goyt Bridge, a scene enhanced by the snow effects, and soon found Goyt Bridge Farm, a regular cyclists and walkers feeding place.  So ravenous were we for a drink, that I, for one, drank eight cups of tea!  Instead of going round by the bridge, we crossed the Goyt by means of stepping stones, placed widely apart and sometimes submerged, sometimes unsteady, on the edge of a small waterfall.  With bikes on shoulders, it created a bit of fun!

Then the climb through the Vale of Goyt.  The limestone dales of Derbyshire and Yorkshire are very beautiful, but nowhere outside of Scotland can compare in my estimate with Goyt Dale.  The steep hillsides clothed with fir and pine, the river deep below, on a boulder-strewn bed, and the higher moors are just magnificent – all the valley might have been a miniature Trossachs (of Scotland).  ‘Tis said nothing is so exquisite and peaceful as a Welsh Valley; I am great on Welsh scenery, it is incomparable, but this is a different type, and just as beautiful in its own way.  The road was overshadowed with glittering Christmas trees (which, by the way, look finer here than filled with baubles and coloured lights as at home), now and then the valley would turn and we would get a glimpse through the trees of the sparkling Goyt.

Low cliffs sometimes fringed the road, from which hung long pendant canopies of icicles.  In one place was a thick, even pillar of ice from the overhanging rock above to the ‘shelf’ below, whilst yet again was a waterfall frozen fast to the rock, for all the world like a colourless specimen of stalactite.  Tom’s camera was working overtime here.  Then leaving the trees behind, we came into the moorland ‘col’, where the road was frozen over, and where a motorcyclist stopped and told us in violent language what he thought about it.  Then he skidded cursing away.  What manner of man is this that does not appreciate the beauty of snow and ice?  Of course, petrol burners are that way inclined, you can’t expect anything else from them.  One cliff we saw was chock full of huge icicles.

Derbyshire Bridge now reached, we soon came to the Cat and Fiddle (1,690 ft) on the Macclesfield road, then sped away on the long snowbound descent to the silk town.  So bitterly cold was it that my hair was frozen into a stiff mass (Tom and Joe had hats on), and the snow froze as it collected on our bikes and shoes.  Through Macclesfield and across to Alderley Edge, beautiful in its white cloak, to Mrs Powell’s for a rousing tea.  The return journey was a nightmare, the main road being frozen like glass, so that the slightest pothole or turn of the wheel produced a nasty skid.  Near Handforth a motor bus had skidded across the road and blocked the traffic.  Progress was dead slow, for we dared not use any brake except the ‘fixed’, and we had to walk down School’s Hill near Cheadle.  After a chat at Kingsway End, Tom left us and from there the road had been thawed with salt and was only slushy.  Stretford, Barton Bridge, then another slippery road – and home at 9pm.

A day ‘pinched’ has seemed all the sweeter for the taking, and shows what I have missed all these five long Sundays.  My eye, so far from being worse for the cold, still improves, and the ‘spell’ being broken, I am free again to ride.                                                                                                                          82 miles

A Matter of Luck

A Matter of Luck

  It seems as if I have been for the ‘high jump’ this year.  I am speaking only from the cycling aspect, although it has had a bearing on my work, which, of course, has to placed first.

I started the year with a dose of flu, first of all, then in March the old steel bike went bust, and five precious weeks including Easter were wasted, whilst a new lightweight bike was on order – a Grubb.  Then in July, I got a bootful of molten metal at work, necessitating a further five week layoff.  This November, as a kind of grand slam to complete (if it is completed) the vicious circle, I got an eyeful of hot sand at work.  So far – December 10 – five more Sundays have been absolutely lost.  An eye is an awkward and somewhat painful thing, needing care and warmth, so, beyond an afternoon tramp over Rivington Moors, I have had to lay off cycling.  However, the optic is all but recovered after a dozen or so visits to Bolton Infirmary, and I hope to start work next Monday – then we shan’t be long !

It is possible that I may, after all, join the little party that is set to be based at Capel Curig for the New Years Holiday tourlet, the Mecca for Welsh mountaineers – and the destination of my last ride before my accident.  To now, I have lived on the memory of that weekend.  True, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’ but I don’t need absence, my pastime ‘grows by what it feeds on’.  But these compulsory hold-ups, serve to show what a dreary, dismal life I would have if it were not for Cycling, and what a drab life non-cyclists seem to have – in my eyes.

The weather has been intensely cold with some snow while I have been at home, taking it all round, glorious cycling weather.  Canals and lakes have been frozen over for upwards of three weeks, the countryside has taken on a new and beautiful garment, and the woods with their snow-carpet and hoar-frosted branches have been a veritable fairyland.  As before said, I managed to get out one afternoon, and tramped from Montserrat, by Eighteen Acre Farm and the Sugarloaf, up the moorland col on to the open moors of Rivington, then down to Chorley Old Road near the isolated ‘chateau’ which is associated with a leper, and down to Doffcocker, Markland Hill, Lostock and up Deane Clough etc to home.

The town boundaries passed, the snow lay in its natural whiteness, and when I got on the moors, it was often knee-deep.  The setting sun tinted the ridges a delicate pink, which, as it went lower, turned grey, then the hush of night settled, and the world seemed beautiful in the twilight.  In the town the snow was churned up into dirty slush, and everybody cursed it for a nuisance –

‘The men with shovels in a row

Pile up in heaps the trodden snow,

The dirty snow, with ooze impure,

That trickles slowly towards the sewer,

The sloppy snow that fouls the street,

And squelches up beneath my feet;

The snow that neither goes nor stays,

That comes o’nights and melts o’days,

Churned under wheels, spat on, and cursed,

As being of all bad things the worst,

The snow, the nasty filthy snow –

“Thank God!” men say, “Its going to go!”

 

‘But as I walk with rubbered feet

Between the puddles of the street

A different picture seems to rise

From that the sordid street supplies

I see a great, white, glittering peak,

I see a tree-hung frozen creek,

I see a wondrous fairy glade,

Where frosted fir-boughs cast their shade

And as the cart comes down the road,

And grating shovels fill its load,

One thing is in my heart to pray:

The country!  Let me get away!’.         Jessie H Wakefield, writing in the Daily Herald

So here’s to snow, plenty of it on the (hoped for) New Year Tour, and many glittering peaks will be seen.

 

 

Sunday, 1 November 1925 Over the Denbigh Moors

Post:       This day is the sequel to yesterday and gets him back to Bolton from North Wales and gets us into the penultimate journal entry for 1925, as he has an accident at work next week !  So please read on, but things will change next year, there will be items aplenty to read, but they will not be in the current format.

Sunday, November 1                                       Over the Denbigh Moors

 As I awoke this morning, I looked through the bedroom window and beheld the Cyfyng falls and the autumn tinted moors and rocks and heard the wind howling above and saw the grey mists rise from the hill tops.  It was but 7am when I went outside for a ten minute stroll before breakfast, when I am on tour I always like a walk early in the morning, it seems to put an edge on my appetite.  Then a good breakfast, a rest, and paying my bill I enquired over the possibility of housing four of us over the New Year holiday.  We should be very welcome, I was told in broken English, and we should have the best of everything at six shillings a day (each) inclusive – and there would be a roaring fire waiting for us after we had been out, and a little parlour for ourselves.  That’s the stuff!

So, changing my wheel round to ‘free’ again, I made a start at 8.30am, crossing the Pont Cyfyng and running easily down the Llugwy Valley, which was gorgeously arrayed in gold and brown.  Passing the Swallow Falls (which I heard quite plainly from the road) I stopped again at the Miners Bridge and soon stood on the wooden footway, watching the seething flood beneath.  There is something almost terrorising in the raging cauldron beneath – something which could easily become an irresistible magnet to anyone suffering from ‘nerves’.  A squirrel came running along the bridge almost to my feet, I watched it for fully half a minute, then it looked up, saw me, and in the twinkling of an eye, had gone.

I proceeded down to Bettws-y-coed, passed through the barely awakened village, crossing the beautiful River Conwy by the Waterloo Bridge, and starting the climb up Dinas Hill.  Now was a wonderland indeed!  The trees overshadowing the road where richly tinted, the slabs of rock, creeper clad, interwoven with moss and roots, were the bed for a brown carpet except where they broke into precipices, then they were a white-grey, newly washed.  Higher up, I saw the Lledr Valley opening out on my right, with the grey road creeping down it, a road that I shall never forget, for last night it held untold wonders for me.  Ah, the woods and rocks and streams around, the golden valley towards Dolwyddelan and its silvery river, Moel Siabod’s crescent of grey-white cliffs forming a seeming impasse, the Vale of Conwy with beautiful Bettws, hidden by riotous foliage, nestling at the foot of a hill of gold and brown, green and grey.  Magnificent, Magnificent!  As one stands and gazes at a scene like this, one finds creeping over that ‘Peace that passeth all understanding’.

I climbed onwards, intoxicated by the paradise around me; I left one wonder to be confronted by another.  The Conwy was beside me now, young, vivacious, the while the road climbed through woods clad in autumn splendour.  A wind sprang up, and as I gradually dropped the trees behind, it became more and more formidable until I reached the open moors at Pentrefoelas, where I had to get down to it, and almost stamp the pedals round.  Then I turned off the Holyhead road – The Road of High Romance, and found myself on a deteriorating, narrow road climbing into the bleak moors.  The wind was now dead behind – I could feel it pushing me, and by its aid I made childs play with the long drags that followed, walking only one to the 1,480 ft level.  The scenery was wild in the extreme, bare, heaving moors for miles upon miles around.  Near the latter point, the views started to open out, until from the summit, a magnificent mountain panorama was opened out to me.  The great saw-edge of rocky peaks from Bangor to Beddgelert, from Ffestiniog to Barmouth were visible.  They started with the ridge of Cader Idris to the south, and swinging round through the west to the northwest, all the principal peaks of North Wales could be seen.  It was a sight worth seeing, and I counted myself extremely fortunate in having such a day for views for my run over the moors.

With little Llyn Alwen on the left, I tumbled down fiercely 280 ft to the River Alwen which runs into the lengthy Alwen reservoir, visible on the right.  At Bryn Pellof, the road lurched upwards, at a gradient too much for me, and the road became a white, sticky, churned up mass of ruts.  In front, on the hill summit, stood a big mansion, which I thought was the Sportsman’s Arms Hotel, the summit of the road at 1,523 ft, but as I climbed up to it, I found it was a private house, and the Sportsman’s Arms a little Inn similar to the Crown Hotel at Llandegla and almost a counterpart of the Snake Inn near Ashopton [long since lost under the waters of the Ladybower reservoir when the valley was flooded in the 1930’s] in Derbyshire.  Then the road became an even, tarmac-surfaced first class road, and I swept down, past where Llyn Bran, coming up to the road, sent big waves across it.  Wild Mynydd Hiraethog was behind me, I dropped down to more wooded, but not striking country, through Bylchau, and with the brake continually in play to Groes.  The scenery now was passing pretty, and full of little hills, giving glimpses of the Vale of Clwyd and its line of guardian hills.  Then I dropped down to Denbigh, with its castle-crowned and narrow, twisty streets.  I had thought of lunch here, but discovered that it was only 11.10am, so I joined the Chester road, and dropped into the Vale of Clwyd.  The going was exceptionally fast, so that soon I was across the beautiful valley and entering the ‘pass’ from Bodfan.

I was beginning to get hungry, but there was not a place that seemed likely to satisfy my wants.  Again the scenery was good, but the road was dead straight and motorised, so therefore monotonous.  Moreover, the wind, which had pushed me from Pentrefoelas, turned – traitor now and harassed me considerably.  Mile after mile dropped behind, until, eight miles beyond Denbigh, near Nannerch, I saw a ‘Teas’ board outside a farmhouse, and stopped there for lunch.  It was a bit of a wash-out for a cyclists place – they don’t appreciate the appetite that cycling creates, and I had to continually ask for more bread and butter and tea.  Before restarting, I decided to quit the main road, for I was but 60 miles from home and had about 9 hours to do it in.  I followed a steep byway to Walwen on Halkin Mountain, I got lost then, and could not locate my bearings by means of the map so I just carried on, on lanes that only just earned the definition.

Once I climbed up a rare little pass to the summit of Herseeld, and got some excellent views therefrom of the Clwydian district and the edge of Cheshire from Mold to the hills about Nant-y-Frith.  Then the scenery ‘gave out’ for a while and I wandered about scattered villages, brickworks, tips etc, sweeping down at length from Rhosesmor into a pretty little lane that dropped me on to the Mold road again, one and a half miles from the latter place.

The Sunday crowds in Mold stared at the bike; yesterdays rain and wet sticky roads made it look as if it had been daubed all over with lime, and my shoes were in a similar condition.  I did not care to re-traverse the Chester road again, it has become too familiar, so I followed the Queensferry road through rather dismal scenery and with a hampering cross wind, via Bryn Offa (I wonder if the name has any connection with Offa’s Dyke?) and Ewloe to Queensferry, then across the toll bridge, which, I think is rather dear at 2d a time, on to the Wirral.  I see a new bridge is under construction to take place of the old road – and will be free of toll.  Then a hardy struggle along the flats to Saughall, and to do a bit of main road dodging, I followed a tricky bylane route out through Mollington, Backford, and Picton Gorse to Mickle Trafford.  I stopped for tea at Mrs Dennison’s, though it was yet only 4pm, but I was hungry, for I had had an unsatisfactory dinner.

It was raining heavily and blowing a hurricane – and dark too, when I left the warm fireside and donned my cape and lit my lamp.  Progress was erratic, for the breeze, generally favourable, had a trick of coming round the side and under the cape, accompanied by what seemed a solid sheet of cold water, which always poured into my shoes.  Yet I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, for experience has brought that ‘gift’ of revelling in rain and laughing if the odds are all against one.  Often a ride of this type provides far more ‘fun’ than a month of summery excursions would, and makes one become more and more attached to this greatest game of all.

Except for a halt for a lamp wick at Frodsham, I remained in the saddle all along Chester road.  I had at first thought of coming home via Lowton and the Leigh setts, for the wind would be at its fiercest across Chat Moss, but on second thoughts I said “to —- with the wind”, (Chat Moss has tarmac roads).  To my surprise, when I left grey Warrington behind, I found the wind dead behind, and I fairly swept along the dreary marshy flats.  Then Glazebury, Butts Bridge and dark, watery lanes to Atherton and home at 8pm.  Had I been better able to judge the time, I should have found room for a couple of hours longer in Wales.

Of one thing I am convinced.  Weekending is far better than single day riding, whether alone or otherwise.  Whether it is the thoughts or not of having to return home at night, or the glamorous questions “Where shall we stay tonight?”, what kind of place will it be, cottage or Inn, in a village or town, or alone in a lonely county? Or the joy of exploring new country, seeing new wonders, and meeting fresh people.  I don’t know, but there is something in weekending that is not found in an ordinary ‘out and home’ ride, something that verges on touring – the best phase of cycling.

This weekend has been better than I ever dared to hope for.  For ‘ten bob’ I have traversed 230 miles, everyone of which I enjoyed.  I have never lifted my finger in repair of my bicycle – it cost me 1d for a new lamp wick – so that is cheap, easy, comfortable travel indeed!  All of which goes to illustrate what anyone with a good, light bicycle can do without fatigue, something which is within the reach of poor and rich alike – the most democratic and finest game in existence.                                                                                                               107 miles

Editors Note

Sadly, due to a further accident at the foundry where Charlie worked, apart from one further entry on the 13th of December, his cycling travels are over for this year of 1925.  He did go to Wales for the New Year Tour, but as it did not commence until January 1, 1926, it cannot be listed under 1925 !

Charlie changed his format in 1926, not logging his travels in the way he has since starting his journals in 1921 at the age of sixteen and a half.   Since the end of 1925, all his writings are literally just writings, without being a weekly, or month by month account.

The stories he wrote so faithfully, gradually became less and less in the 1930’s, not because he wasn’t cycling, his literary life just slowed down to almost nothing, but he did keep on drawing, we know, because they were all dated.

He did keep his love of cycling throughout his life, to the extent that upon his marriage to Margaret Barron, another mad keen cyclist, their honeymoon was a cycle camping trip to Scotland for two weeks starting on July 25, 1936.  For obvious reasons, perhaps, no written record was kept of that tour.

He did keep a very detailed resume of all his travels, set down without any description, so we have always been able to trace his travels from 1921 to 1947.  Beyond 1947, he didn’t keep any records, or if he did, they have not survived. Please note that there are still two items to come, published here on the 21st and 26th of November.

Dear Reader, do not despair.  I shall be continuing with Charlie’s stories, there are plenty that didn’t make it into his four Volumes of Books, and those shorter and discarded items will all be published on this website starting in late November 2017.

But first your website Editor is taking a well earned summer break and the website will run itself over the summer until I get back into harness in the Autumn of 2017.    Happy Cycling.

 

 

Saturday, 31 October 1925 Capel Curig

Post:        This entry, as you will find out, is very long, and only covers the first day of a weekend.  Charlie is instantly smitten by the daughter of Mrs Jones’s Bed and Breakfast ‘digs’ in Ffestiniog, a girl who he thinks is called Jean, but who turned out to be called Jenny.  He makes many visits to this address and I would particularly recommend you read the Chapter on Page 159 of Volume 3 – but only after you have read ‘How the Year Began’ on Page 6 of the same Volume.

Saturday, October 31                                      Capel Curig

 Tom and I had arranged for a weekend to Alum Pothole in Yorkshire, but last week, a workshop promotion made it impossible for Tom to ‘pinch’ a Saturday morning, and I, having got the weekend fixed in my head, decided to go alone – but not of course to the Yorkshire destination.  Then I remembered a New Year holiday tour with Capel Curig as the centre, which has been projected for quite some time, and so I decided to visit the prospective ‘digs’ and see about it – alone.

It was a misty, heavy morning when I started just before 8am, and I made a dash out of Lancashire via Leigh, Winwick and Warrington.  On Chester road it started to rain, and my cape came into active commission.  I stood in Chester at 10.45am, wondering which way to go.  Should I go via Holywell and St Asaph, and then shape my course owing to inclination either down the Conway Valley or over Nant Ffrancon, or should I go to Llandegla, and then decide the route?  After some wavering I joined Wrexham road, for Llandegla, for it offered a better choice.  If I did not feel up to much I could easily go on to Corwen and then take the Holyhead road to my destination, if that were not enough – well, down Nant-y-Garth to Ruthin and over the moors would make a good alternative – or Corwen to Bala and then to Cerrigydrudion and the Holyhead road again – and should I prove to be in hill climbing form I could achieve a long thought of ‘stunt’ by seeing for myself whether the Bala-Ffestiniog-Dolwyddelan roads were really terrors for hills and surfaces.  Keeping my cape on continually through Pulford to Rossett, the Vale of Gresford, Cefn-y-Bedd – and that uphill tramp to the Nant-y-Ffrith turn.  In the little glen at the foot of the headlong descent, I found a little wonderland of autumn colours, and in the sunken lanes that followed too.  I put my cape away at Bwlchgwyn and hummed across the moors and into the valley to the Crown Hotel, Llandegla for lunch, with a four and a half hour run for a mileage of 56 prior to lunch.  So far, so good.

Bk 7 -33035

When I was ready for the road again, the rain was driving down, and a heavy white blanket overhung the Maes-y-Chain.  At the four cross roads at Dafarn Dywarch, I pondered for a moment.  Should I go over the Horseshoe Pass and traverse that glorious stretch of Dee through Berwyn, or see for myself the autumnal splendour of Nant-y-Garth, or re-traverse the road direct to Corwen as last July?  There was a problem for me, and it was only after some deliberation that I decided on the Corwen road – a decision that probably changed my ride into a renascence of wonder indeed.  The road was dirty, but every bit as fast as last July, and my cape was put away at Bryn Eglwys, and the clouds, lifting from the blunt hills around, revealed a wealth of moorland beauty.  Then the sun came out, and one by one, the peaks around Bala appeared.  The Holyhead road – the road to Ireland.  Yes, I would go to Bala, and by the best way – the hilliest way – the roughest way – but the way through the ‘sweet Vale of Edeymion’.  So I turned to Corwen, crossing the swollen River Dee, and turning uphill.

At once my choice was justified, the wood and rock intermingled, the sparkling cataracts, the dirty, rough winding lanes – and I knew, that once again, I had recaptured the glamour that draws me irresistibly to Wales.  Again the road was fast and I thanked the happy thought that put me on freewheel, for I could travel quickly and yet see so much.  Beyond Llandrillo, I stopped to pack away my waistcoat and curse the folly of a sports coat in place of an alpaca on a hot day, and incidentally to look back down the valley towards Corwen, and enjoy the exquisite shades and the simmering woods and rivers and moorlands, and thought, as I invariably do amid such scenes as this, of those grinding away in towns or seeking artificial enjoyment in dance halls or theatres – if they could just be with me now, surely they would see the difference between their shallow amusements and the broad freedom that a bicycle gives them.  Crossing the river at Llandderfel, I passed along the Vale of Penllyn to Llanfor and Bala.  It must be market day on Saturday, for High Street was crowded with people who stared at my dirty machine and shoes.  I was delighted – and surprised to see that it was only 3.30pm – I had two more hours of daylight, and so at once decided to try the wild Ffestiniog road, a road that is boosted by ‘Wayfarer’.

The road ran by the railway and the River Tryweryn – a boulder strewn waterway which abounds in pretty little cascades; in a little valley that was often picturesque, but more often spoiled with ugly hamlets and factories.  The gradient was a gradual climb to Fron Goch, where the Cerrigy-drudion road went off to breast a high moorland ridge, whilst my road got steeper and improved scenically with the disappearance of the industrial vandalism.  Looking behind I got a good view down the valley to the Berwyns, which were ablaze with autumn colour, and the sharp knife-like peak of Aran Fawddwy, of Bwlch-y-Groes memory.  Higher and higher I climbed, the valley giving way to a shallow sweep in the moors, which became wilder and more desolate with every yard.

Afon Tryweryn was a listless swamp now, the bank of trees on the right dropped away before the flinty moors, the road was rough and grass grown in places, an isolated farmhouse of grey stone and many sheep which invaded the road were the only signs of life.  Across the shallow basin rose a mighty mass of earth and rock, full of deep crevices and ragged peaks, lofty, isolated from the moors – Arenig Fawr, a mountain that in its position seems to me to be more impressive even then Snowdon.  I could not help but stare and wonder at it, even as old George Borrow did in the 1850’s; he said that Arenig Fawr impressed him more than any other mountain in Wales had done – I would not say that, for Trifan holds pride of place with me as the most remarkable Welsh mountain.  The moors here knew little autumn colour, for they are heather and bog and rock, grim and dark, but, oh, how fine!  At Capel Celyn, the tiniest of hamlets with a general store, I managed to procure cigarettes; they only had Woodbines in but – I like the ‘evil-smelling Woodbine’ really.  The hard road got harder, and I passed the little Inn at Rhyd-y-Fen, which Wayfarer finds so good, and at which George Borrow quaffed a tankard – a lonely place it is too!  Still climbing mostly, with the scenery getting wilder, lonelier and Arenig showing his great form to still greater advantage, I had to open gates, and the road surface changed to loose, blue, slate-shale.

Then I heard a distant roar, coming nearer, and instinctively looked down the green track that passes little Llyn Tryweryn and runs into the gap of Cwm Prysor, remembering for the first time that a railway traverses this moorland col.  An engine and train of wagons appeared, the metallic click of the wheels on the steel rails changing to a deep, prolonged booming which reverberated strangely across the vast solitudes.  The train seemed a tiny, infinitesimal thing as it ran along the foot of the high slopes – the lower acres of Arenig.  I turned again, for daylight was waning and I must reach Ffestiniog ere dark.  Climbing a ridge past where a weather-grizzled old shepherd was driving a flock of sheep towards a lonely group of farmhouses, I swept down to cross a moorland stream and climbed spasmodically, the gradient bringing me out of the saddle.  When the summit was reached at a height of 1,507 ft, I thought that I had come in the hardest direction, for I discovered that I had been climbing for eleven miles.  But in front had appeared a range of mountain peaks, sharp, abrupt, rugged – a view that kept my eyes fascinated despite the bumping and crashing that my bicycle endured through neglect of the road surface.

The gradient was with me now, and I sped along while the coming night hushed the moors to a brooding quietness and the wilderness around became lonelier – stranger.  Pont-ar-afon-Gam, where this neglected road is joined by another one, old, grass-grown, where a lone signpost, bent and scarcely readable points to Penmachno, where is an old farmhouse with a notice that says ‘Cyclists Teas’, where is a tumbledown bridge beneath which a swollen stream rushes.  Pont-ar-afon-Gam.  Here I left my bike for a moment to find Rhaiadr Cwm ‘The Cataract in the Hollow’, but failed to locate it.  A little farther where the road runs on a shelf with a sheer drop of 50 ft over the wall, I caught a glimpse of Rhaiadr Cwm, the most magnificent falls I have yet seen in Wales.  The Afon Gam descends a deep gorge, a rift in the precipice, which is so sheer as to be unapproachable, in several huge leaps.  The swollen river was the whole width of the cleft, making the view of the foaming torrent extremely vivid.  From the road summit another, different view fell to my lot – a view which I could never hope to explain, even with a pen like Basil Barham.

At my  feet was the beautiful Vale of Ffestiniog, with the winding River Dwyryd like a stream of molten silver stretching along to the sea.  The fading day threw a glamorous mist over the Vale – not a mist, a haze, the sky seaward retained a last bright streak, reflecting in the sea.  On each side of the green and gold valley, reached a line of peaks, saw-like in contour, black, impressive, one that might make anyone stood there, and seeing them as I did, say with Borrow,

‘Wild Wales’.

I knew every peak – I named them from south to north, there was Llechog, above Barmouth, above the incomparable Mawdach, Diffwys and Y LLethr, the Rhinogs with Bwlch Drws Ardudwy between, and many lesser heights on one side, Moelwyn Bach overshadowing Ffestiniog.  Moelwyn, that remarkable peak, which from this position looks as though the top has been sliced clean off, a range of lesser peaks again, behind which stood the splendid profile of Cynicht.

But here I was, with darkness creeping down and the road hardly discernible beneath me, and Ffestiniog yet three miles away – three miles below though!  My freewheel worked overtime on that descent to Ffestiniog – and so did my one and only brake, so that soon I stood in the main street at the fork roads; the place was lit up by street lamps, under one of which I stopped to peruse the CTC handbook.  I soon found no. 4, Sun Street (Mrs Jones) and the door was answered by a remarkably pretty girl.  Here I was made heartily welcome, and sat chatting by the fire with (of all people) a Wesleyan minister, a very nice gentleman, Mr Rothwell by name, whilst Mrs Jones and Jean, [To sort out any future confusion, Jean was actually Jenny, but as I learnt many years later when I was researching the family of Mrs Jones, the Welsh pronunciation of Jenny sounds like Jean.  It becomes obvious by reference to Charlie’s books that Charlie was very smitten by Jenny.  Ed]  got the tea ready and Jean went for some fruit and cream and cakes.  A good tea, and ten minutes before the fire talking with Mrs Jones (and Jean) – Jean gave me a guide to Ffestiniog afterwards; I was almost persuaded to stay the night in Ffestiniog, but got away with the plea that it was too far from home (only 100 miles).  At any rate it would have meant a lump of the same road over again.  They were incredulous to think that I was going over the mountains to Bettws-y-coed that night, though I could not see why, though I did change over to fixed before I started, for one brake is often insufficient in these parts.

Ffestiniog gave me an excellent impression, firstly the Rhaiadr Cwm, then the view of its Vale, then its hospitality, and lastly, but not least, its pretty lasses!  That reminds me of the verse that ends:

‘But fairer look, if truth be spoke,

The maids of County Merion!’

I don’t think it will be many moons before I visit this place again.  Brilliant moonlight – as anticipated, it was a full moon, and perhaps the clearest moon of the year, for with the disappearance of summer, the heat-haze also goes, giving way to a clearer atmosphere.  My little ‘two bob Lucas’ was of little use, for even in shadow, it gives but a pale yellow glimmer.  Had the night been wet or cloudy, the crossing to Dolwyddelan would have been an adventure – and there was no alternative.  But all was well.

Pausing a moment where the Bala-Maentwrog-Blaenau roads diverge, to ascertain my way, I soon left the quiet little town behind, and sped along a road that was overshadowed by great bulky forms, where sharp summits stood out clearly against the starry sky.  The great hills on the right shut out the moonlight, and screened a greater part of the valley on the left.  In front, the lights of Blaenau Ffestiniog appeared, then soon the scenery changed – a blight, so to speak, fell on the land.  A tinkling rivulet hurried beneath the road, I looked for the shadowy trees, the green grass – the boulders covered with clinging moss, but saw, instead, a hideous mass of shale which formed the banks of a stream which stank and appeared discoloured.  I hurried on, past huge slate tips to a town that, in its industrial meanness, reminded me of some Lancashire towns.

A long straggling place it was, with the houses on the right sometimes built directly beneath an overhanging cliff, sometimes below a shale slope, sometimes overshadowed by large factories.  The town became noisy and well-lit and crowded with people.  I pushed my way through the jostling mass, then the streets became quieter, and all at once I found myself above another noisy stream with banks lined with tall dark trees – and I rejoiced that Blaenau Ffestiniog was behind, but not the ugliness caused by it.

The road started to climb steeply, I left the trees behind and dismounted, walking between high steep slopes of broken slate: the moon shone on one side, revealing the true nature of the pass with cold, searching brilliance that I almost resented.  The walk got harder, phew! it was a warm night.  When the slope petered out on the left, it revealed huge mountains behind, the whole of which were scarred and broken – the whole mountainsides were vast quarries.  Higher I climbed, until the road shook itself clear of encumbrances and left all traces of the chaos of Blaenau Ffestiniog behind.  On the right a low ridge hid the view from me, on my left I looked across a little level where was Llyn Tfrydd-y-bwlch and a backing of rocky peaks all bathed in moonlight.  A little farther on I reached the summit, 1,262 ft.

Then the descent of the pass down the side of, and round a shoulder of, Moel Farlwyd; sometimes the road in shadow, sometimes in moonlight, sometimes in long, easy sweeps down, sometimes in short, sharp pitches, round corners, one of which performed a complete turn about in so short a distance, and on such a gradient, that I had all my work cut out to get round at a speed not more that 6 miles an hour.  Then the road went level again, I crossed the railway, and was in the Lledr Valley.

I stopped on Roman Bridge and stood watching the water foam down the glistening rocks, the Lledr dancing and sparkling in the rich moonlight, I rode slowly on the even, level road, enraptured with the autumn colouring of the woods and hills and the moon-toned grey and brown of the rock, and the liquid clearness of the hurrying river.  I forgot the time – the day – the outside things – I had only eyes for what I saw and mind for what I might miss, no motors, no cyclists, no pedestrians were met; I had the Vale of Lledr to myself on that wonderful evening, I wanted it for myself.  No amount of writing will describe it – no words could, and all I could say of it at every turn was “Magnificent, magnificent!”

Then on my left, on the summit of a huge rock, a square solid looking tower appeared, and I remembered that this was Castell Dolwyddelan.  It seemed to be wonderfully in keeping with the rugged majesty of the surrounding mountains – indeed, it can almost be said to have grown with them, for this rude ruin has stood for almost 1,500 years.  Here came Iowerth Drwyndun when he was refused the British throne because of his broken nose, here the great Cymryc hero, Llewellyn the Great was born, and here the peaceful Meredith ap Ivan sought a quiet retreat, who used to, as Southey says:

‘Linger gazing as the eve grew dim,

From Dolwyddelan’s tower’.

These things passed through my mind as I looked on the rough old edifice, and thought of the pageant of history that the precipitous crag it crowns has witnessed.  Then on again by the multi-coloured banks on the left with its numerous little ravines down which some noisy stream would chatter, and the low meadow on the right, through which the river finds its course, and above which floated a low, white ground mist.  I came to the tiny, ancient town of Dolwyddelan picturesque and in harmony in its isolation amid the greater isolation of the everlasting hills around it, a town I had never seen actually, but which seemed familiar, from the many pictures and paintings I have seen of it, Linnel and Varley, to name but two are great masters who have painted Dolwyddelan and its surroundings.

The hills on each side draw in again, the river keeps close companionship to the road and fills the air with its music.  The trees overshadow the now rough road, throwing it in greater darkness.  Here and there, a moonbeam comes through the foliage and make a pattern on the grey surface, which is strewn with fallen leaves that rustle beneath my wheels.  A few cottages and a church melt away behind me, Pont-y-Pant.  I make erratic progress, for I must keep looking over the wall to admire the river, or stop and look back at the wonder-pictures enhanced by the moonlight.  Then I instinctively swerve across the river – another road seems to go on, and as I ride beside a high wall I wonder if I have gone wrong.  The surroundings bear a strange familiarity which seems to grow on one, then I find myself on a smooth wide road, I cross and iron bridge and come upon a village – then I remember it all.  The Holyhead road – the Waterloo Bridge – Bettws-y-coed!  A clock in the village struck 8pm just as I stopped in Pont-y-Pair to watch the River Llugwy wildly and noisily fling itself beneath the creeper-clad and moss-grown arch.

Again all signs of life melt away behind me, for my journey is not yet at an end, another five or six miles must be covered.  The road tilts upward, and I get down to it, increasing my pace from the eight miles an hour or so of the Lledr Valley to twelve miles per hour, for before I retire tonight I have much to see.  For a little while I climb until a row of cottages appear on the left, I stop on the right, leaving the bike by the wall and carefully walk down a path, descend a few rough steps, spray splashed, and reach the narrow, stout, steeply ascending bridge known as Miners Bridge.  From the middle I looked down over the handrail at a maelstrom of creamy water raging incessantly between smooth grey rock-walls. It was a weird sight in the moonlight, holding me fascinated with the wild torrent and the continuous steady roar.  Then I slowly went back to the bike and remounted.

A large hotel appeared, and simultaneously I became aware of a deep roar coming from the woods on the right.  Again I stop and leave the bike, going through a ‘penny in the slot’ turnstile, and going on rough, steeply sloping ground, I again reach some steps with a handrail to guide me, until the spray comes thick and wet, and I stand, a hypnotised witness of a terrific spectacle – Swallow Falls in spate.

The moonlight was thrown full on the madly rushing water, a sight that was a hundred miles of riding alone.  From my position, I could hardly see the upper fall, but stood on a boulder at the foot of the second fall and just above the third.  The water came leaping over the boulders and foamed and roared at my feet with such force that the air was filled with spray, descending on me like heavy rain, so that soon I was wet through.  But not for the sake of a wetting would I abandon this scene, and I stood there for full ten minutes until my shoes ran water, watching the awe-inspiring fury of the waters of Llugwy.  Then I moved to another vantage point, from where I got a better view of the upper fall, the most majestic and inspiring of the three.  It looked to me just like a great picture, finer than a masterpiece, and the deep booming roar like sweet music.

It was with some reluctance that I left Rhaiadr-y-Wennol and passed through the turnstile to my bicycle again.  The Valley of Llugwy opened out and became a littler barer as I came to Pont Cyfyng, where once more I peered over the walls to watch the river plunge wildly between great white-grey slabs of rock.  Across were the row of cottages, in one of which I should find a haven for the night.  But not just yet – no I must go up to the fork-roads at Capel Curig and see Snowdonia in the light of the moon, for I was loth to give my ride up yet, on such a night as this.

The valley was opening out now, was more bare, wilder, more desolate.  The hillsides, which lower down were clothed in golden, glowing vegetation were here brown, sweeping moonlit moors, sometimes breaking into little crags, grey or black.  There was Moel Siabod, dreary enough from this outlook, a long heaving waste of moors and marsh, culminating in a desolate peak, a striking contrast to the fine semicircle of precipice which is seen from the other side, or from Bettws-y-coed.

Ah, there was a change again, rocks, rocks, rocks, the houses appeared at Capel, the big hotel, then the joint roads.  I looked on shining masses of rock, precipitous crags, soaring into the transparent sky….   Glyder Fach, I turned to see the greatest, the loftiest, but over the three peaks of Snowdon a billowy white cloud-bank hung, for all the world like a great snow-white silken curtain.  Grib Goch, the northern tentacle of Snowdonia stood out of the snowy mist like a huge saw edge, Y Lliwedd was hardly cloaked, for the moonlight was directed full on the lower cliffs.  I think that it was better to see Eryri as I saw it, for it gave an awe-inspiring effect.  For the first time today, an overwhelming sense of loneliness came over me, the dead quietness of the night, the moonlit solitudes of the mud sides of Moel Siabod, the bare valley in front culminating in Snowdonia and its clinging blanket, the huge rock-masses of the Glyders, all dead quiet – vast, unworldly, in the moonlight.

At length I turned and sped down again to where the silence was broken by the vivacious Llugwy.  I crossed Pont Cyfyng and stopped at the little cottage.  “Could you put me up for the night, please?”  “Yes, come in”, and I was welcomed into the warm kitchen.  Mrs Jones busied herself about supper whilst I was being taught the intricacies of the Welsh language, a language that I have no hopes of ever being able to understand properly.  Supper of sausages and meat, a chat with Mr Jones, then a walk outside, to savour the last cigarette of the day!

As I leaned over Pont Cyfyng smoking and watching the river pounding the grey rock just as it has done for thousands of years, and will do again, looking down the Valley towards Bettws, where the low white ground mist was rising, I reflected on the day and on the wonderland I had seen and felt truly thankful for the whim which irresistibly forced me to this weekend.

So to bed, to be lulled to sleep by the eternal roar of the Llugwy just below the window…                                                                      123 miles

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 25 October 1925 Willington

Post:      Blackberry Joe seems to be enjoying the company of Tom Idle and Charlie, and in fact becomes the close friend of several others who began to call themselves the ‘We.R.7′, a bunch of hard riders and rough stuffers who people the books already published of Charlie’s.  A great crowd !

Sunday, October 25                                                  Willington

 Joe came over at 8.30am this morning, for at 10am we must see Tom at the little canal bridge on Chester road, beyond Warrington.  At Four Lane Ends, it came on to rain heavily, we got into our capes and proceeded.  At Atherton, under pressure from Joe, we stopped at a Temperance Bar, and despite the chilly morning, quaffed a tankard of Ginger Beer.  Ugh! It was icy cold.  Then we pedalled away through Glazebury, and stopped when the rain did to get out of the capes, and stopped again to get in, and so on, climbing in and out of them several more times, until, patience exhausted, we shoved them in our bags and said ‘blow the rain’.  Whereupon, a tropical deluge soused us and once more we dragged the oilskins out.  But it cleared up, so that when we reached grey Warrington, the sun was steaming our clothes and all chilliness had gone.

We met Tom on the road, and as he had a 20 tooth freewheel for me, we stopped while I screwed it on, and then Joe got his pipe on, and settled down.  He is still on the improve, is Joe; his latest is a change of gear, bringing it down to my prime favourite, 59.8” free, with 66” fixed on the other side as a reserve.  Mine are 59.8” fixed and free, and I find it an admirable gear, not too low, especially for fixed in winter.

To our alarm, up came F. Eastham, the club bore and his rear-lighted pal, the same couple who fastened on to us last Sunday night.  We proceeded with them, whilst again I had a fierce argument with the red-light maniac.  Every time we meet now, we have a set-to on the subject, but he is so pig-headed that I never hope to convert him.  He can’t see reason!

Along Chester road, we (Tom, Joe and I) hatched a plot.  Well knowing their hate of sloppy tracks which they have, we decided to devote the day to tracing the muddiest ways we know – and some we don’t in the hope of shaking them off.  But that was not necessary, for we reduced our pace to that of the ‘C’ section, and knowing that they class themselves as hard-riders, we got for ourselves a name as potterers.  They left us on the Delamere turn beyond Frodsham, speeding away Chester-wards, whilst we forsook the main road, and faced the climb between the headlands – Frodsham and Helsby.

As we climbed higher, walking, the sunlit lane in front and behind became a veritable riot in colouring, drawing cries of delight from us, whilst the headlands, first well wooded, changed into swelling fields of deep brown and red.  On the summit, we found a tea-place, and had lunch in a shady, bower-like shed, whilst Joe sighed about the pretty girl who served us.  The sighing changed to growling when we were charged 8d each for a pot of tea!  Then we sat on a gate for a while, and admired the view westward across the Mersey and Dee, to the Welsh mountains, and to the sunlit plains around Chester.

Then came a downhill dash, with the Vale of Delamere Forest on the left, to Manley, a bridle road, and the duck pond at the end of the switchback.  Then the shell-shocked lane, the bounds of which some vandals have been deforesting, by Ashton Hayes Park, a constant reminder of Autumn Glory, to the glossy, noisy Chester road at Kelsall.  A moment later this highway was behind and we were heading for the low, wooded hills, at the foot of which is Willington.  Willington district is glorious, Willington village is nothing to get noisy about, but the village lasts but a moment, the district can be made to last half an hour.  We stopped at Quarrybank fork-roads to admire the scenery and light bits of paper with a magnifying glass, the sun being at midsummer strength, then rushed down between banks of rhododendrons to the Tarvin-Tarporley road, immediately crossing, and joining a bewildering series of lanes in a level, marshy uninteresting district, but with the rock of Beeston Castle before us and the trail of beautiful hills that mark Peckforton Range.  We never seemed to get any nearer to the castle, always we seemed ‘so far’ away.  But we reached it at last and stood on the little green gazing up at the lofty, beautiful scene.  Then round to Beeston Smithy, down to the station, and the old Eaton road, diverging to Oulton Park.

As it was still very early, I promised Tom and Joe a diversion, a bit of rough-riding, and at once I led them across Oulton Common, on a road that earns the definition of a ‘track’.  It earned other names too, from Joe, who knows how to speak in a fluent and highly coloured way, when occasion demands.  I told him that this was a first class highway in comparison with what was coming soon, and I was threatened with a swift and terrible demise.  So when we reached the main road, crossed it, and proceeded along an ill-defined path full of deep bog-holes and tree-roots and boulders, I got well in front and stayed there!  It led us a merry dance, but even Joe began to forget his revenge when he beheld the colours and beauties of the woods and bracken.  To say it was gorgeous or magnificent is a poor way of explaining, and a pen could only convey the slightest idea of Autumn in these woods.

But as a kind of retribution, my  front tyre expired, to the joy of Joe and Tom, who calmly sat on a gate and tried to pull my leg whilst I transferred a liberal tonnage of slime from the wheel to my hands and clothes, in front of a grinning array of village youngsters.  Still, a puncture is ‘nothing a pound’, and very soon I had it mended, and was wiping my hands on Joe’s stockings, a thing which Joe didn’t seem to like, though I have seen him do it!

Then we fled down a hill that, in wetter weather, doubtlessly forms the bed of quite a respectable cataract, crossed a sunken stream – which was not sunken enough to avoid getting our feet submerged, and came on to the Tarporley-Warrington road at Cotebrook.

For two miles we skipped along this smooth highway, Joe and I holding a fast pedalling competition.  Then we dived through a gate and joined the route of July 5th, over Abbot’s Moss.  This was rougher than ever, bringing violent oaths of a glowing nature from the unimaginative Joseph.  When we reached the end at Whitegate, he offered to fight me, until Tom the peacemaker strode in.

Mrs Jones at Whitegate made us a sumptuous tea – one thing about this place is that nearly everything is home produced, and can be relied upon for being ‘tre bon’  The little girl about 8 years of age, has the most wonderful head of curly, flaxen hair I have ever seen.  She knows it too!   With lamps lit we sailed away to Northwich, then by various lanes to Great Budworth, High Legh and Broomedge, where Tom left us and we concluded the ride home in good time.  “Day by day in every way, it goes better and better!”                105 miles

Sunday, 18 October 1925 Gordale Scar

Post:       The project today is to climb up the waterfalls at Gordale Scar, which they enjoyed.  Could I perhaps mention that as a young member of the Rough Stuff Fellowship, many years ago, three of us struggled up that very steep fall with our bikes and lived to tell the tale.  Yes really !   Most of our friends thought we had lost our senses, and my wife has always been of that opinion.

Sunday, October 18                                        Gordale Scar

We had decided on a run into Yorkshire, and I had to meet Tom at 7.30am in Bolton Town Centre, and Joe on Blackburn Road.  Tom was there, but Joe, as usual, was not: you see it takes him an hour to pack up!  After getting Joe sorted, the main road took us on to the top of the moors, and dropped us on paved roads through Darwen to Blackburn.  Once we had shaken the last suburbs of that ‘hole’ away, we were in the open country, in the Ribble Valley.  The sun was breaking out as we dropped down by Whalley Abbey to the river, and through the historical village.  We avoided Clitheroe by taking the bylane through pretty little Pendleton to Chatburn.  Again the main road – a winding beautiful road – the Skipton road, to Sawley, and up the noted ‘brow’.  The road is very hilly from here, but retains some good scenery and outlooks.  At Gisburn we turned for Hellifield, on the main road via Nappa, a road that is not pleasant in itself, but gave us, from its higher points, excellent views of the glorious limestone heights around Settle.  Just before Hellifield is reached, the road runs on a shelf above the River Ribble, and is quite good.

When we reached the railway town, our first impulse was to get out of it, which we did, by steep, autumn coloured, narrow lanes to Airton, and another lane, very hilly and trying in the hot sunshine but with glittering spectacles of Malham Cove before us, through Kirkby Malham, reaching Malham none too soon – we all felt a bit fagged and a lot hungry.

We had lunch in the little shop, where it was cooler, than pottered along the steep road which drops precipitously to Gordale Beck.  Leaving our bikes in a shed, we walked up the valley where the streams issue from the ground.  Gordale Scar was new to Tom and Joe, and I could see by their faces that they were amazed at the sight, but when they got round the corner and saw the waterfall coming through the arch and over the cliffs, their amazement was still more pronounced.  We stood gazing there for some time; it is something to gaze at, something which set me thinking of a great geological wonder, the Craven Fault, which, stretching from Kirkby Lonsdale to Knaresborough, has caused many wonderful curiosities of nature, as Malham Tarn and Cove, Gordale Scar, Sulber Nick etc.  Surely, we argued, this district with its potholes and stalactite caves, waterfalls, moorlands and dales, and limestone heights, is worthy of more exploration than we had given it !  Yes, we must have more of it, weekends and days, for it is a country that we know little about.

We climbed the cliffs until we could look down through the natural arch, and with the arch as a frame, obtained a fine view down the Scar.  Then we went up the shallowing dale, having a hard, hard time of it in climbing crags and negotiating the ever prevalent walls and railings, until we stood on the high moors, looking down towards Skipton, the ‘Capital of Craven’, over verdant, hilly fields and woods and high moorland ridges.  On our return, we noticed above the Scar, that the ground was a veritable maze of deep, narrow channels, all natural and caused, we surmised, by the agency of water, which found the softest places in the limestone, and as centuries rolled by, gradually eroded these winding channels.  Down again to Gordale Scar by means of a very steep slope of stones, which moved treacherously with a careless step, and innumerable little precipices, then back to the bikes, and across the Beck to Malham again.  At a little shop in the village we got some picture postcards, and learned with chagrin that we had passed near Janet’s Foss, or Force, a fine waterfall on its way down to Aire Head, where Gordale Beck combines with Malham Beck, (which issues from the foot of Malham Cove) to start the infant River Aire.

We decided that the time was too late to try any detours, so returned to Hellifield by way of our outward route, and so to Gisburn.  Instead of retracing the main roads, we took the lane route, a beautiful road, especially now, in Autumn, to the legend-loaded village of Rimington.  I had broken my freewheel, and now, oh, how I wished that I had one on.  A hot day and long downhill sweeps, trying to keep up to Tom and Joe who were on freewheels, on a gear of 59.8 is apt to get tiring.  With grand views of the brown hills across the Ribble Valley, we peeped into pretty Downham, then sped down to Chatburn.  The main road through Clitheroe was covered in a burst of speed, then from Whalley to Copster Green, where we met the club at Mrs Wood’s for tea.  The road again, with many companions to Mellor Brook, where we branched off, in company with two of the biggest ‘bores’ – one of whom was loaded with the hateful red rear light.  I had a row with him, but found that I might as well argue with an ass.  Near Cherry Tree he got a puncture, so as Tom had to get back to Manchester, we left them.  Poor Joe got stuck with them too!  The dark road, which gets up on its hind legs conveyed us through Tockholes to Belmont, then down to Bolton.  I left Tom on Manchester road, and came home with a mind to a weekend ‘over there’ next week but one.                        102 miles

Saturday, 17 October 1925 Walton le Dale

Post:        Charlie strikes a chord for me, he is right I venture to suggest that when the elements are against one on the road, there is a peculiar joy.  A joy that is denied to others following different pursuits.  Or am I completely past it ?  Answers on a postcard please !

Saturday, October 17 1925                           Walton le Dale

 I started this afternoon in a terrific rainstorm.  It was what most folks call rotten weather, what cyclists call ‘not so bad’, but still, when I got on Beaumont road, which is very exposed, and bent down to it with the wind striving to hold me back, and a smarting rain beating a tattoo on my uncovered head, I had the full joy of cycling under adverse conditions – the peculiar joy that makes me like cycling in wet or rough weather and which makes most cyclists revel in it.

There were only four of us at the club meeting place, the Beehive Hotel, and the leader (one of the four) had only come to let us know that he had a bad cold and was going back home, leaving three of us to carry on, Joe, Mac and I.  We packed our capes away, and faced the wind along Chorley New Road, deciding to go to Walton le Dale instead of White Coppice, so passing through Chorley, we kept to the main road, and soon arrived.

While we were at tea, a party of Bolton Wheelers came in, and Jim Ashworth, a member of the Bolton CTC, who is well known for his droll humour.  We had a pleasant hour by the fire while Jim explained his perpetual motion theories, theories that in their absurdities set us rocking with laughter.

Then the same road, singing songs to Chorley, where we stopped at a shop and dared Joe to go in for a halfpenny of spearmint.  He did so, and when he was told that they had none, he asked for two P.K.s (P.K’s are four a penny).  Then Jim went in, and the following dialogue took place:

“Have you any Abdullah cigarettes please?”   (a very expensive brand)

“I’m sorry we haven’t”

“Oh well, gimme a packet of Woodbines!”

Then again, the main road home, cracking jokes continually, and parting a merry party indeed.                                                         36 miles