Charles J Pope rides around the Cotswolds - 100 Years on

LAST August I recreated a day's riding from the cycling diaries of Charles J Pope (published by Shaun Sewell in 2018) 100 years to the day after the event and this year I thought I would do it again. This time I would be accompanied by Cormac, a rising star in the world of adventuring, aged 14. He would play the part of Edward Brownfield Pope, Charles's brother, who joined Charles in his rides. I did not actually tell him that he was undertaking this role in case it put him off.

Charles Pope usually started his summer cycling tours by heading off from his home in Hammersmith to the Swan Inn at Burford, a favourite with the Cyclists' Touring Club members at that time. This year the inn was "invaded by a large contingent of the Manchester District Association of the CTC North West Section" so they had to sleep a few doors away, but returned to the Swan for breakfast.

So we hauled our bikes out of the back of the car in Burford's free car park, put the wheels back on and headed to what was the Swan but is now an art gallery for a photo opportunity. I don't think I would get a job as a wedding photographer as I struggle to get people to face the camera. Perhaps I will have more luck further down the page...

It was a Sunday when Charles did his ride on 16th August 1925 but this time it was a Saturday and so the streets were busy and it took us a while to join the traffic and head along the main road for a short distance until we were out of the town and could turn left onto the lanes to take a quieter route via Great Barrington to Bourton-on-the-Water. Charles had continued up the main road a bit further before turning off but roads were quieter then. Fortunately the back roads in this part of the Cotswolds seem to be quite wide and well surfaced and generally without too much motor traffic, so there were times when I could imagine that this was what the main roads of the 1920's were like

We picnicked in a conifer plantation somewhere and so did not have to stop to eat in Bourton where we weaved through the crowds and carried on westwards to the Slaughters which involved crossing, and going along a bit, the A429. Something which we would have to repeat on the way back. Cormac coped very well but I don't think he liked it much.

I realised early on that I had forgotten to bring the sun tan lotion so, in the interests of not ending up with a burnt boy, chopped off the end of the ride where we should have gone to try to eat at the Golden Ball at Lower Swell - still a pub thankfully - and headed back via the "rough and hilly route to Sherborne".  The roads were now nice and smooth but they had not done anything to reduce the hilliness.

Cormac enjoyed his ride but was not very keen on the Cotswold villages which he said "all look the same", which is true I suppose.

A palindrome for Tony Blair

 TWENTY years ago or so I had this letter (a palindrome) printed in the Hereford Times. All the letters started with 'MADAM,..." so it seemed an ideal opportunity to send in a palindrome. I wish now that I had pretended that my name was actually Adam. Oh well.

 

Buoyed by success I thought I would start work on another and after a few weeks I had come up with the following:-

 

Party rotten? Test on odd ones. Retaliate, disaster rages! Unite, gristle-bottom. So go let arise Tony Blair to do trial by notes irate. Logos? Motto-belt, sir? Get in. Use garrets as I detail a terse nod. Do not set net - Tory trap!  

 

I remember starting with "Tony Blair to do trial by not" and working outwards, and the rest sort of fell into place in the usual way. I have not attempted any more since!

Christmas Cards from 2011 to 2023

EACH year I try to draw a Christmas card and I have been trying to sort them into order. Most have the year on them but some I have had to guess.. and it seems that there are 2 missing. I wonder what was on them...

Anyway here they are in chronological order, starting with what must be 2011 judging by the apparent age of Cormac.. unless I've drawn him too young-looking.

2012: There was a brief period when Cormac was more interested in trains than his father.

2013: I cunningly moved the monkey's eyes to the right to make him appear to look at Father Christmas.

2015: Cormac was into the planets a bit hence the telescope.

2017: Siobhan doesn't look much like her real self in this one. It's always tricky drawing wives.

2018: I must have been looking at my copy of Gerald Newton-Sealey's book of the villages of Herefordshire at this time and decided to copy the formula to make a News-Card. They take quite a while to draw, of course, but much time is saved later on when writing inside them as you only have to put "to so and so" and "from whoever"!

2019:

2020: I must have either been too busy this year to do a news card, or maybe there wasn't much news.

 

2021:

2022:

And finally I realised that it might be useful to have the year (2023 in this case) more prominently displayed.. 

Charles J Pope rides to Montgomery - 100 Years On..

THE cycling diaries of Charles Pope were published a few years ago under the title of 'A Golden Age of Cycling' with selected entries spanning from 1924 to the 1930s mostly relating to his summer cycling trips from his home in Hammersmith to other parts of England and Wales usually. In 1924 he and his brother headed to Wales so I decided to mark the centenary by recreating the third day of their holiday, when they cycled from Ludlow to Montgomery, exactly 100 years after the event: 12th August 2024. It was a Tuesday then but a Monday this time. 

Setting off from home at 7.05am on my Pashley Guv'nor, which isn't completely dissimilar to what Charles would have ridden having the same number of gears (3) and being generally old fashioned, I had first to get to Ludlow. This was an hour's ride.  I had not been able to track down the location of the Blythwood House where they had stayed so I headed north for Bromfield (the Brownfield in the book is a mistake - Brownfield was however his brother's middle name!) but not by the A49 as I think they did but along the back lane through Priors Halton, which was my first encounter on this trip with NCN Route 44 which cropped up again later in the day.

I wondered if this gatehouse to Bromfield Priory was the 'monastic ruins by the roadside' where they took shelter from the rain. It is not however where they described it being slightly off their route and not at the top of an ascent but I did not spot any other ruins on the route. A minute after I left this spot  I too had to rapidly seek shelter from a sudden shower, so I was happy with that bit of coincidence.

The Swan at Leintwardine is now no longer a pub so I did not feel comfortable in asking for bread, cheese or beer. Knighton was soon reached but I could see no optimistic cyclists on the steps of the Dragon, or even pessimistic ones so I moved on after having a look at the clock tower which I recently learned is pretty much the same as the one at Hay-on-Wye.
 

The road to Clun is now much more rideable than in Charles's day although I had to walk up a couple of stretches. I mentioned to a gentleman in Clun that it was exactly 100 years since a cyclist had bought custard tarts and lemonade from the bakers there and he seemed impressed by this fact.  I recreated this event as best I could by buying a flapjack and some Vimto from the Spar.  I was surprised that the Vimto was not fizzy - I was sure that it was meant to be? Also in Clun I took a photo of the green front door of the now-closed Buffalo Inn where Charles was destined to stay on future trips. 

It was at this point that I noticed a horrible lump in my front tyre so I let a bit of air out to reduce the chance of a blow out and proceeded somewhat gingerly.

  

To Bishops Castle and on to Montgomery where the Old Bell is now a museum. Sadly it was closed, being a Monday, so I decided to go for a drink at the Dragon Hotel. I had planned to walk up to the castle to see if I could find a likely 'rabbit cropped bank' which Charles mentions, but  it looked like a steep climb and as I now had to cycle home I decided to leave that for a future trip.

I decided to let my Beeline device guide me home having asked it to find me a 'FAST' route home the night before but it decided to send me along NCN Route 44 which I had enjoyed earlier near Ludlow but which in this part of the country heads over every hill top it can find. So rather more walking was called for than I had anticipated but after three whoppers the hills abated and I raced to get home for tea time.

 

My tyre finally gave out as I hit a kerb too hard in Leominster and I had to fit my spare inner tube in the Coop car park. Must buy a new tyre.

Distance travelled: 90 miles.

Pond Leak

 FOR my introductory blog entry I am going to post a photo of our recently constructed pond which seems not to be holding water. (The big stones should all be submerged)

No doubt I pierced the liner when I was putting the big stones in the deep bit. I had hoped that the water would stop going down and then I would be able to see at which level the hole was but as you can see the hole must be somewhere at the bottom and thus the whole lot will need to come out. Grr.