Saturday, June 7 – Thelwall Brook

I have to meet Tom this afternoon at Thelwall, 5pm; so at 2.45 I started via Four Lane Ends, and over the terrible setts of Atherton and Leigh.  Then Lowton, and the bylanes to Winwick.  An excellent surface carried me smoothly to the outskirts of Warrington, through which town I was jogged unmercifully, and made thoroughly uncomfortable with the dust and dirt of that notorious town.  As I was early, I joined Tarporley road to the Ship Canal, then the road on the Cheshire side through Stockton Heath to the Pickering Arms at Thelwall Brook.  A few yards farther on, I saw Tom sitting on a bridge, 4.30pm.  We stayed here awhile, until the long-threatened rain came down in torrents, and not wishing to get our capes wet, we called at the ‘Glen Tea Rooms’, our usual place hereabouts.  A club was making merry in the cyclists hut as we entered, and soon we sat down to a quickly laid tea.  After tea, the club trekked to a larger hut with a melodeon, and for an hour we had the strains of music? to sooth us!  We went for a walk in the rain along the muddiest route we could find (as is our wont), and when we returned the birds had flown, so getting out our machines, we made a move inside our capes, through Lymm and Broom Edge, joining the Altrincham road.  Through the town, then Stretford road to Old Trafford, Oxford Street, Piccadilly and through a maze of drab, winding streets to Tom’s place for the night (still inside our capes).                                                           48 miles