13th October 2016: Special Ride to Longdon-upon-Tern (brisk)

With this being the last “Special” ride of the year, I wanted it to be a little special; and in my opinion, it didn’t disappoint. I’d planned the route based upon prior knowledge of about half of the route, with the rest being new territory. So there was a “cassette” of six Briskers (Ken,Ivan,Steve T,John M,Paul) that set off along the Nantwich Road. A right at Burley Dam soon gets us onto the long quiet lanes which will feature in today’s riding. 

Out passing Shavington Park, we go through Longslow, which is the crossing point on the return route. At the busy Tern Hill roundabout on the A41, we’re soon away from the traffic and onto Hodnet. We sidle around Marchamley Hill and onwards to Moreton Corbet. I can’t resist a stop to view the forlorn castle ruins that we visited on last October Special Ride. These were besieged by King John’s army in 1216; and Oct 19th is the 800th “deathday” of King John. No stopping at the “Elephant and Castle” today as we head through Shawbury looking for the River Roden valley. 

Another history lesson at Moreton Corbet Castle 

We pass through Roden and Rodington before looping north to the “Tayleur Arms” in Longdon-upon-Tern at 32 miles The Mods had recently arrived, so we order up from the Specials menu. The fare is good as we re-fuel for the 30 mile return. It’s definitely cooler as we head into the wind in a loop to Water Upton via Higher Ercall. 

It is now a long lane north up the River Tern valley via Great Bolas and Stoke on Tern to quietly enter Market Drayton via Salisbury Hill road. We are soon out of the metropolis and crossing through Longslow again taking the long and always uphill road to Calverhall. Coffee is within sight as Ightfield, Ash Parva and Ash Magna seem to fly by as we slide through the centre of Whitchurch and into the Sainsbury’s cafe where the Mods have recently arrived. This for me was a quintessentially CER ride down quiet long lanes in the early autumn countryside. Nothing better in my opinion. So 62 miles at 16mph. Oh, I nearly forgot to say that Paul had ridden out and back to Whitchurch today, so he'll have more than a 100 miles on the clock.

See route map and/or gpx file download

CA

Photograph by Clive Albany

PS: This ride was almost on the 7th anniversary of my first ride with CER. Now after 238 rides covering 15,100 miles, I’m a little better informed of the lanes we ride - but there are still new ones to find, as witnessed by today’s ride.

PPS: Thanks to Sainsbury’s Whitchurch store for allowing us to park at the store.