Fifteen of us made our way to Fleet by train, bike, motor-home and car for Vic's annual tour to the abandoned Roman town of Silchester (Calleva). Lining up outside the cafe by the station were: Vic, Pam, Ed, Rob, Brian S, Bob, Robin, Ray, Phil, Norman, Les, John S, Steve, Julian and (newly re-released from teaching and hoping to come out on many more Wednesdays) Brian Nixon.
Brian S had mended a puncture on arrival. Setting off into a stiff westerly wind, we rode alongside the railway line (where Brian had a second puncture) and briefly on the main road towards Hartley Wintney, before ignoring advice from a road mender and going down a closed road full of potholes and bumps, but enjoyably free of traffic. At Phoenix Green, Phil went on ahead, the heavens opened and Brian had his third puncture and was red-carded for time wasting, cycling 44m home alone via Pirbright. The rain eased and we continued, dodging showers, through some lovely lanes bordered by cow parsley, skirting the Duke of Wellington's park and long stretches of Silchester's roman wall to the Calleva Arms for lunch--good beer and food--where Ed dealt with a slow puncture.
The landlady told us that the small museum at Silchester is now closed, so after lunch Vic showed us the amphitheatre, the long line of wall still visible from the Silchester churchyard and, a little further on, the biggest remaining section of wall. At this point Phil rejoined us, having come via the Duke of Wellington's monument, and we met another group of cyclists from the Reading area (one of whom--Brian Morris--said he was an ex-CTC chairman) and stopped for a chat. Vic's last call was at Bramley church to see the grave of Ilse Meitner--an Austrian nuclear physicist who told Rutherford that his data showed that he had indeed split the atom--ancient murals of St Christopher and St Thomas à Beckett, saved by whitewash from the depredations of the Civil War, and a note about the enormous ammunition store that had been on the outskirts of Bramley during two world wars until the 1970s. By now it was past four o'clock and we decided to skip tea and make straight for Fleet station. The rain held off and the wind helped us along to the end of a highly enjoyable and instructive day.
The artefacts excavated from Silchester are now all in a museum in the middle of Reading. Vic would be happy to lead a ride there, starting from Twyford if enough people can get to the starting point. Twyford is on the line out of Paddington and is about five miles from Winnersh, which is on lines from Richmond /Twickenham, Dorking or Guildford. An alternative might be to meet at Windsor and follow Sustrans route 4 to Reading (25 miles).
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