14th July 2022 ; Oswestry (brisk)

On Tuesday, four of us rode from Market Drayton to Pattingham – a round trip of 67 miles. Most of the lanes were new to us and surprisingly in very good condition for long country lanes. 

This was our route and I can recommend it if you want something different.

The ride today from Holt to Oswestry was shorter at 48 miles, but large parts of it were down very badly surfaced lanes. So Ivan, John W and myself set off with Nick bound for Threapwood. 

Nick peeled off here for home, then we three “enjoyed” 13 miles of poor quality lanes running from Threapwood to the outskirts of Whittington. Most of CER Riders have “enjoyed” these lanes over the last 10 years or so, and I doubt that apart from sporadic patching, none have been properly maintained. So what's new!

At Whittington, we admire the castle with its moat before taking the main road out and into Oswestry. We take a loop around the centre to access Willow Street and thus into the arms of Wetherspoon's “Wilfred Owen” pub. Owen was a local English lad who was a leading First World War poet dying at the very end of the war. As ever the food comes quickly, and my roasted vegetable pizza with a pint of Purple Moose bitter left me with change out of £6 !

Leaving at around 1300, we stop at the town-centre castle mount for a photo before heading up the lane to the “old castle” known as Old Oswestry iron age hill fort. A bit further along this lane the road is firmly closed, so a quick diversion via the A5 roundabout takes us into Gobowen.

At Oswestry's "new" Castle mound

There is now a long upward run into St Martins and out to Overton before diving down into Bangor for a shortcut across the Dee bridge to seek out the quiet lanes running back to Holt. Well that's what John and I did, but Ivan missed the turn and carried on at some speed around the re-surfaced Holt Road. 

We find Ivan enjoying a cuppa at Cleopatra's so we join him. Most of this ride I had to do with just the inner chain ring, so most of the time my legs were going around like a windmill in a hurricane to keep up with the speedy duo. Graham Weigh Cycles are making it better this morning.

So only a 48 mile route with some sunshine, but with the out and back, around 70+ for the three of us riding out from Chester where we get home around 1530. 

See route map and/or gpx file download