29th December 2022: Brimstage (mod)

There was an excellent turnout of CER members for the last ride of 2022. The weather had been especially kind with a dry forecast for today sandwiched between two rainy days. Whilst most of the members shared stories of their favourite presents from Santa , Alan Oates was wrestling with a “king of thorns” puncture outside. This happened literally within 50m of Meadow Lea so hot coffee supplemented his spannering duties and he was ready to go again. 

Alan & Steve T both had a previous route from Mickle Trafford to Brimstage, Steve T fired up his trusty Wahoo computer and loaded the route first time, in fact a first time for Steve T as he normally has to ring the Wahoo helpline. So the mod group consisted of Dave M, Electric Pete, Steve T, Steve Hu, Alan, Ray, Andy B and Dave H.  It was particularly nice to also have Matt along on his recumbent. After a short time, Dave M and Pete went to do their own route and the intrepid 7 - all 15 wheels - set off for the Wirral.

The route took us along Salters lane and then joined Fox Covert Lane. This lane then pops you out by Chester Zoo. All was quiet there today, the animals probably sleeping off the excesses of Christmas Parties. The Dingos and Wolves having just celebrated Feliz Navidog. A quick dash across the A41 at Backford and down Station Road; this delightful lane meanders past the “5 Villages Hall”. A sharp right on to Demage Lane provides a lovely cycleway across the fields parallel to the railway line. A number of gates have to be traversed before ending at Bridle Lane and dicing with the Boundary Mill Traffic. 

A quick ride past Capenhurst and onto Ledsham Lane means the Welsh Road is soon in sight. From here a gentle spin into Hooton and then past Bromborough Golf club provides the first stop at Raby Mere. A quick zip tie bodge sees Dave H saddle bag re acquainted with his seat and we head for Higher Bebington. At the Storeton turn everyone is riding together, however by Brakenwood Golf course the peloton has put the hammer down, leaving Dave H, Matt and Steve Hu in the Autobus. Taking our life in our hands we approach Clatterbridge Roundabout. Matt and Steve take the cycle route whilst Daredevil Dave joins the cars to circumnavigate the roundabout. Unfortunately, Dave’s navigation sans paper Garmin is not up to the task and he finds himself outside Clatterbridge Triage gates, only 180 degrees out. A quick phone call from Steve gets us all to the Courtyard Cafe at Brimstage for lunch. 

Following an excellent array of sandwiches and drinks we leave Brimstage en route to Thornton Hough. Crossing a very busy Chester High Rd we cruise through Neston, Ness gardens and then plunge down to Burton Marshes. We were all delighted to see that the path had been cleared of agricultural effluvia seen by Alan 10 days earlier. With the sun setting over N.Wales, a group photo was hastily arranged. 

Photo by Steve T

At the junction with the Greenway, Andy and Steve H set of for N.Wales and the remaining team headed back to Meadow Lea

Thanks to Steve T and Alan for jointly leading the ride. 

See route map and/or gpx file download 

Steve Hu

9th December 2021: Brimstage (mod)

Another good turnout at the Cafe in Hawarden despite the thermometer reporting a cool 2 degrees Celsius. The brisk group replete with Buckets & Spades were enroute to Prestatyn, we trust you had a nice day gents. 

The mod group consisting of ride leader Alan, Trevor, Dave & Liz , Dave H Steve T, Steve Hu and Andy. Clearly Andy isn’t finding riding a 20kgs bike heavy enough so today he arrived complete with panniers. I suspect he is trying to outdo Roy (lets do a 90 miler with bricks in my panniers) Forster. 

The mod group plunged down Gladstone Way and used Alan's cunning route to ride over the A55 roundabout and get on the Shotton road. At this point instead of “Where’s Wally “ it was where’s the tandem!  A full five mins later Dave & Liz appeared , the combination of bollards tight turns and steep inclines had hampered progress some what. 

All back together again the group made their way along the river and towards the Toyota Park. At this point Alan regaled the group with his tree planting and Willow felling expertise. Sustrans have adopted a large triangle packet of land and are replanting native trees and controlling the woodland from the fast growing Willow.

The route then meandered until we approached Dunkirk on the Shotwick road. We now navigated numerous road closed signs and observed the busiest folk this week, are tree surgeons. Looking at the damage the Wirral took a real pounding by storm Arwen. A brief stop at Raby Mere then the route took us  past Brackenwood golf course and descended from Storeton hill towards Brimstage through another road closed sign. 

A fellow cyclist coming the other way advised the road was impassable, clearly he was not aware of Dave ( Indiana Jones) Heath's ability to cross roads. The underpass ( pictured) turned out to be a bit more of a challenge. Liz made a management decision and whilst 7 men debated if we could get across with a low engined Tandem , she was 400 m down the road going back the way we had come! 

Photo by AO

Suffice to say Liz’s decision was the right one and we braved the M53 roundabout to eventually arrive at out lunch stop the Mouse Inn in Brimstage. However the Mouse lived up to its name and was deemed too cosy for a Covid distanced lunch for eight of us. So we dropped into the Courtyard Coffee shop which provided a lovely fare for our hungry stomachs. 

Replete with Sausage Panninis and Cheese sandwiches plus 10 litres of tea we set off for Parkgate, the temperature had now dipped to three degrees and it had started to rain. Road captain Alan made a quick decision to re route us through Thornton Hough and Willaston. Another plunge to Burton brought us out by the marshes.

From here various members started to peel off leaving the committed to ascend the 300 feet back to Hawarden just as the drizzle started to get serious. 

Thanks to Alan for scoping out and leading the route. 

See route map and/or gpx file download

SHu

13th May 2021: Brimstage (mod)

 A Bakers Dozen CER members turned up at Meadow Lea on an overcast and drizzly morning. It was good to see Andy W along with Dave and Liz Pipe after a long Covid-induced break. It turned out that there would be seven moderate riders, whilst Ivan and John W constituted the briskers.

But where to go, as there had been a last minute change of venue?  I had managed to root out a ride to Parkgate, originally devised by Trevor a couple of years ago and had loaded onto my phone. Consequently I was elected ride leader and set off with Clive, Dave H, Andy B, Alan, George and Peter, turning right out of the café car park heading for The Wirral (or is it just Wirral? – answers on a postcard please).  We zigzagged our way over the M53, past the back of the zoo and over the canal past Chorlton Hall. We were soon crossing the A41 at Backford and heading up Demage Lane towards the railway. The Sustrans path alongside the railway slowed us down with all its gates but we put up with it as the alternative is to cycle up main roads. Then it was on through Capenhurst and Ledsham, across the Welsh Road and on to Willaston. At some point after the Sustrans path, Peter stopped to take a phone call, saying that he’d meet up with us at Parkgate, so we were now six.

As we’d been going along, I’d been having a conversation with Clive about where we were headed and where we might eat. He suggested that we should divert from Trevor’s route at Willaston and head up to Raby Mere. The mere was 'created' some 350 years ago by damming the river Dibbins that once flowed through this part of the Wirral. A mill was built in 17th century and this in turn was powered via a sluice from the Mere itself.  Having made use of the photo opportunity provided by the mere, we pressed on through the outskirts of Bebbington heading for Claremont Farm Café and Farmshop where we hoped to find lunch and, according to Clive, the best pork pies anywhere. 

When we arrived, the place was heaving. The car park was full and the café full of people, so it was agreed that this wasn’t the place for us, although we did take advantage of the facilities. By this time the rain was heavier and more persistent, so waterproofs were donned.

 Plan B was the café at Brimstage Hall, so Clive led us through the housing estates on the periphery of Bebbington and almost all the way to Storeton, before turning south for Brimstage. The cafe turned out to be an excellent choice, being much less crowded and providing us with shelter from the rain whilst we ordered and ate a very satisfactory lunch.

Photo by Alan

The rain had stopped by the time we left Brimstage and we threaded our way through Thornton Hough and Neston to join the boardwalk across the marshes at Ness. From there it was the usual route through the Deeside Industrial Estate to connect to the Greenway. Clive peeled off for home part way along and the rest of us arrived back at Meadow Lea in time for refreshments before they closed at 4pm.

  A very pleasant 39 miles visiting one or two places not seen before. Thanks go to Clive for suggesting the ‘route extension’ and for leading on that section. Thanks to the rest of the crew for their company and support and apologies to Peter for not showing up at Parkgate.

I hitched a lift back to sunny Runcorn from Dave H and was more than a bit surprised when I got my bike out of the back of the Berlingo to find that my back tyre was flat. How lucky was that!

See route map and/or gpx file download

ST