Today we had a special ride organised by Clive. Car assist to Battlefield (Shrewsbury) and a combined route for both Mod’s and Brisk as far as The Bear inn at Hodnet. The brisk riders were John W, Ken, Ray and Ivan.
Leaving the Battlefield café (I’ll leave Clive to complete the history of this location), we join the cycle way adjacent to the A5124 for a couple of miles before turning onto Huffley Lane taking us towards Bowmere Heath and Myddle. Clive had put in a little divert here to take us off the A528 following good CTC practice, as John advised us, which decreased our main road time by a minute!! But it was a good road lane and not a muddy track. Leaving the main road, we have the pleasure of new country lanes and enjoy the relative quiet and reasonably surfaced roads.
We pass through Prees and are routed to the villages of Darliston and Fauls. As the route is mainly flat, we join the Drayton road into Hodnet and I’m a little concerned that we would arrive before 12:00!! So, we had a cool down for a couple of miles. As we enter the village, we have a manic red transit van driver who took a dislike to us riding two abreast and directed his battering ram/van at us before swerving to miss us by inches. He is in a minority on our roads (I hope). As we’re are having our lunch, Dave M arrives after cycling from Gobowen to join us, shortly followed by the moderate group.
Our route back to Shrewsbury was extended by a few miles compared to the moderate route, so leaving our buddies to enjoy their lunches, we hit the saddle and ride out to Stoke on Tern, Eaton on Tern and Bolas where we join the A442 before turning onto the B5062 for another Tern, Longdon on Tern. We stop for a photo shoot looking at the Wrekin which we are riding the shoulder of before a downhill sprint where we meet a Freelander. John and I go one side while Ken skims the left side. Near miss and thankfully all ok. Not a red van driver, although we probably appeared as kamikaze riders to him although it had been a long quiet lane to this point.
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| Wrekin havoc! |
Our next photo call was at the large Roman ruins at Wroxeter. A Roman City once the fourth largest town in Roman Britain during AD90s. Worth a visit. We ride along the walled gardens of Attingham Park for a mile + before hitting the outskirts of Shrewsbury where Clive has a housing estate tour in store for us. It proved a good short cut back to Battlefields and certainly a lot less car/lorry polluted. Shrewsbury has changed considerably since I lived there during the 80’s.
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| Three old relics at Wroxeter Roman city |
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Photos by JW and KP
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