Always read the small print, dear reader, and don't be misled by little blue signs, that's the moral of this sorry tale! Anyway, I jump ahead of myself. Encouraged by a glimpse of sunshine and fortified by an Elleray Hall elevenses, a couple of dozen or so of us set off in three groups from Teddington. In my group were Sue C, Paula B, Gill H, Keith R, and Dave E, as well as Dave V, who very generously back-marked all day (it was remarkable he was on the ride at all as he had ridden the Hilly 50 course yet again the previous day).
Our outbound route meandered around rugby grounds, sewage works and a stately home, eventually depositing us by the Grand Union Canal. I think Clive, who had kindly volunteered to lead on of the other groups, may by now have cottoned on that I had freely plagiarised from one of his (excellent) routes between Southall and Iver. That included a diversion off the canal to visit the rather impressive redevelopment site where HMV (then EMI) had once produced its records, printed the sleeves and labels, stored and shipped them. Homage was paid to the rather oversized statue of Nipper! After another impressive but oddly deserted development, Stockley Park, it was back on the towpath again and through some lovely riverside scenery before we hit the Colne Valley Trail (perhaps that should be the Marmite Trail)!
I suppose I should have expected trouble. The trail does purport to be part of the National Cycle Network after all! Anyway, it starts benignly and lulls you into a false sense of security, then the surface disappears and it becomes rather crumbly and sandy for a bit. I must admit, I had forgotten about the fallen tree halfway along, which looks to have been down since time immemorial! As I say, I had warned folk and pointed out an alternative route, but would they listen! Anyway, my group managed it all without demur and we bustled on past Pinewood, Fulmer and the outskirts of Gerards Cross to take us near to our lunch stop at Hedgerley. With just a few miles to go we had to stop for a puncture but it was all quickly and efficiently sorted out by team effort.
As you will see, the menu at the White Horse is impressive (and that's just the beers). What with the puncture and one thing and another, my group were running a bit later than expected, and it was half past two before we left Hedgerley. Still, we made it back to Walton bridge just after four o'clock with the assistance of the nasty northerly wind which had plagued the morning's ride. Many thanks to other group leaders, Clive and Neil (at least until his elastic broke), and to everyone else for your comapny.
Of his group's experiences Clive writes -
My group consisted of: Jennie, Steve D, Brian, Richard and Dave F. We set off prettypromptly from Teddington heading north through Twickenham.
After skirting the rugby stadium, we turned off Whitton Dene and followed the path alongside the Duke of Northumberland’s River which passes through the Mogden Sewage Treatment Works. Mogden, according to it’s sign, is the UK’s third largest water treatment plant and has capacity to treat 0.79 million cubic metres of sewage per day, enough for 1.9 million people. The largest works in the UK, and in Europe, is the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in the London Borough of Newham. Beckton can treat 2.3 million cubic metres of sewage per day and was built by Joseph Bazalgette whose blue plaque we passed a few weeks ago on the London ride. To put Beckton’s capacity in perspective; the world’s largest sewage treatment works, the New Delta Wastewater Treatment plant in El Dabaa, Egypt can treat 7.5 million cubic metres per day.
Incidentally, The Duke of Northumberland’s River is so named because the Duke is the lord of the manor of Isleworth and Twickenham. The river is a man made tributary of the Crane and was constructed in the mid 16 th century for the purpose of supplying water to the mills and farms on the Duke’s land.
We continued through the residential areas of Isleworth to the relative calm of Osterley Park where we saw a heron perched by the lake. From there we made our way to the bridge on North Hyde Lane and Grand Union Canal where were passed by the second group led by Neil W.
We left the canal path to go along Blyth Road and and the old vinyl record factories where we stopped for a photo by the big dog.
We rejoined the canal at Horton for a while before coming off at Packet Boat Lane.
From here we left the urban sprawl behind and the route followed country lanes and paths. Although the route had, so far, been fairly flat we had a few hills to climb before the lunch stop at the White Horse pub in Hedgerley where we met up again with the other two groups.
This a great pub serving good beer and excellent value food. After lunch we had a steep climb to get out of Hedgerley on our way to our next refuelling stop in Walton. At Laleham we joined the Thames path and upon reaching the bridge at Chertsey we were all expecting to turn left on to Chertsey Road, but no! The route had us going under the bridge following the river along a grassy track through Dumsey Meadow which is a very pretty unimproved natural riverside meadow and a site of special scientific interest.
We arrived at the Ferry Café just before 4pm and stopped for tea and cake. We set off for home together with Steve peeling off before Walton Bridge, Dave leaving the group at Esher to try out Prince’s Coverts and me, Brian and Richard separating at Leatherhead.
Many thanks to my group and to Steve for back marking. And thank you to Dave W for a really great route which had a bit of everything in it, including a few surprises.
(note: facts and figures about sewage plants sourced from Wikipedia).
And finally, Neil W writes of his group's ride:
Among the self-guided group of me Andy H Hans Dave B and Peter S, (missing Janice) only I had the notes 'up front' so I led to start, and on the innovative twisty route the notes did prove useful. It was chillier than expected, so just a quick photo stop of the dog waiting on His Master Voice. Some way beyond the M25 the bands holding my sat nav to the bars expired (yet another thing to add to regular maintenance), so Andy took the lead. With Pat away sick I stepped in to head up the lunch indulgences, with a sausage casserole, and patriotic St George's ale. My food was served so quickly I had time for a dessert too .. the names are so appealing .. so I had to try the Snail Bank (dessert) cider too.
Leaving the pub I related how I had done the ride to the pub on one of my early rides with the 'B's and marvelled at Fixie Dave climbing out of Hedgerley on a fixed wheel, so I re-entacted it staying in a 50-17, only just made it and left quite a way behind the others. The return went well, Andy had ridden the rotue so many times with the Kingston Phoenix he was on auto-pilot, and after Staines we were off Dave's excellent course and found we were 'improving it' in a few places. Tea/coffee was at Walton Bridge cafe, great day out, thanks well done again Dave.
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