30th April 2015: Hanmer (mod)

A group of nine: Bryan, Dave and Liz P, Dave H, Keith, Trevor, Brian Mac, Mike and Jim assembled at Hildegard’s to plan our day’s ride. The Hanmer Arms was chosen as our lunch stop as the route gave us several opportunities for change should the weather become unpleasant.

Photographs by Brian MacDonald

We set off across the Dee into Farndon and then northwards to Churton.  Here we turned east towards Coddington and then south through Barton and Stretton to Tilston. A few showers hit us as we followed the dog-leg lanes broadly southwards through Horton Green and Cuddington Heath to Lower Wych. We then joined the A525 at Eglwys Cross briefly before following the A 539 into Hanmer. This allowed us to avoid the short but usually very dirty lane direct into the village. 

The pub was a little quieter than usual and most took advantage of the ‘Pensioners Special’ menu, which included a free half pint/tea/coffee. Not a huge amount of choice of food but we get easily confused these days! Plenty of ales to choose from though, including an interesting Elderflower Ale. We could see the weather steadily improving and set off an hour later in dry and occasionally sunny conditions. 

We followed the lane south to Bettisfield and then turned north-westward heading for Penley. Here we picked up one of our regular routes back from Ellesmere to Worthenbury, Shocklach and back to Holt in time for coffee and cakes. No more rain, though the breeze did pick up from time to time.

An excellent days’ riding on mainly quiet lanes: 41 miles in total.

See route map and/or gpx file download. 

JD