Cycling adventures across Yorkshire, Britain and beyond
Next month, for a magazine article, I’ll be cycling the Way of the Roses, 1970s style: on a vintage bike and with only kit from that era. No lycra, no gadgets. Today was a kind of test-cum-photoshoot – done with a 1970s 35mm SLR, in black and white, on a few train-assisted highlights of the…
A shorter day, and a princely one, but only because it was Rainier. At least it was almost all car-free and, like yesterday, involved a lot of promenade paths with me gazing at the water. Much of it this time landing on my head in the form of heavy showers. Anyway, after a quick bit…
Whenever I learn of extreme places – End to Ends, alphas and omegas, highests and lowests – I can’t help plotting a bike route between them. So when I found that Britain’s Biggest Church and Smallest Church are connected by endless miles of mostly car-free, pleasant promenade riding, I had to ride it. SEE THE…
The market town of Driffield – Gateway to the Wolds – is not associated with codebreaking. Alan Turing never cycled here, and it never had pioneering computers the size of a factory. It’s an East Riding farm-country hub, mainly known for having the largest agricultural show in Britain. But I was there today to explore…
In 2017 I rode to Hessay, a village west of York, to find the Centre of Yorkshire. At the point suggested by the Ordnance Survey as the county’s centroid, all I found was a cowpat. Since then, however, the OS has refined its calculations. It now reckons the exact geographical middle – the point on…
Stir-crazy from deskwork and gloomy weather, I got out today for a micro-adventure: an End to End of the City of York. At barely 14 miles long – from the northern extremity near Strensall, to the southern limit by Naburn – it vies for the title of ‘shortest End to End I’ve done’ with that…
I’m on a quick overnight jaunt to Blackpool to ride the illuminations, thanks to a £25 Travelodge offer. The best way to experience the lights from the saddle is to join the thousands of other cyclists on the opening night, when they shut off the prom road to cars. I did just that in 2016,…
A few miles upstream from York, the River Ure shiftily changes name to become the River Ouse. Why? Where? How? Who? I cycled along both rivers today to find out. The official cut-and-paste story is that the Ure becomes the Ouse at Cuddy Shaw Reach, just before Linton-on-Ouse. For reasons never explained, the hundred-metre-wide Ure…
Fans of the ferric will love Bennerley Viaduct. The 430m-long former railway bridge glides over the marshy flats east of Ilkeston, on sturdy iron pillars. A victim of axe-murderer Dr Beeching, it was saved from demolition and reopened as a foot and cycle bridge in 2022. Today was sunny, I had some morning article research…
Pontefract is Liquorice Town. Or was, anyway. The friendly, lively West Yorkshire place, its name corrupted by sweet-chewers, gave the world ‘pomfret cakes’ – chewy aromatic liquorice pastilles, stamped with an image of its historic castle. Liquorice was big business here through the 1800s and early 1900s, with ten factories employing over 5,000 locals. They…