I believe we all had a great lunch at The Angel today. It’s good to see such a historic cycling venue still going strong.
Many thanks to Pam for organising, supported by Simon on the money.
It was a wise decision to call off the morning ride. Kudos to anyone who rode to lunch, and especially to anyone who did more than ride straight home.
We learnt from Colin at the weekend that his greatly loved wife Jane died suddenly on Friday. She was on her bike riding to the local food bank in Epsom, where she has been a regular volunteer, suffered a cardiac arrest and died on the roadside. Earlier in the week she had felt unwell, suspected an issue with her heart and visited her doctor the next day. With nothing of concern diagnosed she felt able to carry on with her busy life.
Colin and Jane’s son Ollie, daughter Katie and her husband have been with Colin since Friday. One great comfort to the family has been that three months ago Katie presented Colin and Jane with their first grandchild, a little girl.
Our heartfelt condolences to Colin and family at this very sad time for them.
~ Tim
Due to the extreme cold weather and the resultant dangerous road conditions all ride leaders for the 3 ride groups have cancelled their rides from the Claygate Day Centre on 14th December. This was a decision reached independently by the ride leaders and was taken in the likelihood of the continuing freezing/snowy weather causing hazardous cycling - and possible spills, putting an extra burden on emergency services.
As a consequence I have contacted the Claygate Centre and cancelled our elevenses. For the A group, riders may still need to ride to the Angel for the Xmas lunch. However should the weather and road conditions improve considerably in the next few days individual riders may still wish to ride to the Day Centre and meet informally for elevenses. (Claygate Centre have been made aware of this possibility). Thereafter riders can decide for themselves whether it is safe to continue riding. It is important to note that as the formal group rides under the auspices of Cycling UK have been cancelled, riders who wish to ride as group, whilst protected individually by their membership of CUK, will not be covered by the group riding insurance liability provisions of Cycling UK.
I hope this advice is helpful. Please contact me should you require any further information or advice. Further updates may be provided. Stay safe.
Ged Lawrenson,
Rides Secretary
mob. 07986 254073
We will meet at the Day Centre in Claygate and ride to The Woolpack in Banstead. The management at the pub don't require us to pre-order and I think they are intending to serve us at the tables for both drinks and food orders.
The car park isn't ideal for parking bikes so I asked the manager at the pub if the side gate could be opened for us before we arrive so that we can wheel our bikes into the garden area. I don't imagaine that anyone will be dining outdoors.
This is the route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41340378
Individual leaders may choose to vary this, according to their whims on the day.
Between Leatherhead and Walton-on-the-Hill there will be some undulations but much of the route will be less challenging. Just South of Claygate, New Road should be even dryer than it was this week.
Please confirm by email or private WhatsApp that you wish to come on this ride and indicate any preference for early or late departure. Your sub-leaders will be Christina and Francis. It will be cold so wear your warmest things.
After lunch there is no organised afternoon ride, allowing us to get home before dark. We will still be in the period of the shortest afternoons in the year with sunset scheduled for 15:51.
Tim
Your leaders preparing for the ride
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| from the original by Brian Bent |
Wednesday was very cold but there was no prospect of rain and with Christmas Lunch bookings assuring us of a full house at The Angel we had three full groups of cheerful Wayfarers. Before we left Dave Vine made a short speech and presented Noreen and David, the volunteers at the RBL, with the customary small gift of chocolates. We are pleased that our regular attendance at the RBL was able to resume after the pandemic receded and grateful to have two cheerful people there every month to cater for us, this time including the seasonal mince pies.
The last of our three B groups left almost on time at 11:00ish and made good progress up through the woods of Oxshott Heath and after a brief but lovely meander through Heath Road joined the busy Fairoak Lane before venturing into the trees along New Road. On separate rides Christina and I had done our recces and on both days found New Road to be completely unrideable due to several enormous puddles straddling the path. So we had been concerned about whether it would be good enough to take our groups through on the day. But after so little rain in recent days the path was almost totally dry apart from a few squiffy bits and we arrived in Claygate without mishap.
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| New Road as it was on the recce |
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| New Road on Wednesday |
During our recces we had cycled along the path through Littleworth Common on a carpet of damp autumnal leaves but on Wednesday it seemed that a project had just commenced to resurface the path and the soil was quite soft in places, and totally devoid of all leafiness. I hope they won't lay down tarmac but whatever they do to it I hope they will consider doing something similar in New Road. I wonder when New Road was actually 'new'.
As the last group out it dawned on me that we wouldn't get to lunch on time if we did the whole course so after turning left at Hampton Court Bridge for a ride along the river and a tour of Molesey we took a short cut to reduce our distance by a couple of miles and arrived at The Angel around 12:30, as planned. But both Gill Holder and Christina, with the earlier teams, proved that they were made of sturdier stuff by riding the entire route, all getting there in good time for a natter and a drink before lunch was served.
Our experience of the occasion served to remind us why we go back there year after year. The staff cope so well with what most of us would regard as bedlam and they served a very decent Christmas lunch to us all. By now Pam must have lost count of how many times she has organised this event for us and we remain hugely grateful for her hard work in getting it all together and supervising proceedings. She did seem to have quite a number of elves this year and blow me down if Santa himself didn't turn up to spread good cheer all around.
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| (photo: Tony Hooker) |
While we were dining at The Angel the Easy Riders had cycled to The Jolly Coopers for their Christmas Lunch at Squiffy's restaurant. It was unfortunate for them but one of the delights for our ride was that Ed met us in Cobham and cycled with us to have dinner with B Group. Mind you, he was pretty quick to grab a drink and station himself in front of the fire as soon as we arrived.
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| The one and only Ed |
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| Ho Ho Home time |
A big thanks to Christina and Gill for subleading for an intricate route in quite 'varied' terrain and for transporting everyone to the pub in good time. Thanks to Mick in my group for back-marking and to everyone in the peloton for their cheerful perseverance and hearty appetites.
~ Tim
On a chilly overcast morning n..n..nineteen set out from Cobham, starting with Dave Ward's group ..
David Ward: Our group (Dave F, Dave E, Sue C, Janice, Nigel, Clive and me) set off from Cobham promptly at 10.35. The twists and turns of Neil W's ingenious route around Fetcham and Bookham soon had us all dizzy, but at least that took our minds off the cold!
[Ed.. Dave W's group were the only one with a pic of the Barnes Wallce grave we all visited].
Janice left us before Green Dene. We were in gloom at the top of Staple Lane
but sunshine at the bottom and that re-energised us and we pushed on to
reach The Seven Stars not long after
noon. Service was friendly and
efficient and capacious meals were delivered to our table only very short time
after we had returned from the bar.
Consequently, we were on the road home just after 1.00 pm.
Hans led the third group ..
My group of six set out from Cobham full of expectations of a ‘mystery’ ride. We weren’t disappointed. A route through new roads around Fetcham and Effingham eventually brought us to the grave of Barnes Wallace, of bouncing bomb fame just in time to catch some of Neil’s dissertation on the great man. By shear coincidence as I write this there is news of the death of the last surviving dam buster Johnny Johnson.
On with the ride, up Green Dene and a fast descent to the dual carriageway and along to the Horsley lights. The fast pace continued to lunch, despite Patrick’s attempt to go elsewhere.
A good lunch, photo and then back to Esher via Cobham .
Neil W.: My Wayfarer blog
invite mentioned there would be a follow on Place of Interest to a POI we visited
in Harmondsworth earlier this year (16 Feb 2022). After that ride I read up and noted Barnes was
buried in Effingham. I only found out where in October. If I had searched
the Wayfarer blogs I would have found several rides visiting it, back in 2012
and since. Anyway, in the style of an
end of year hotpot made up of xmas leftovers, I put together a route with interesting
bits of rides done with my KPRC Saturday group, keeping fairly local and with just one, well behaved full climb.
We took in Fetcham's Gatesden Road, a light climb that then gives a splendid view north over
Brockham Common. The picture doesn’t do it justice .. much better in bright
sun.
At
Effingham we visited the grave of Barnes Wallace. I had set a puzzle with the Led
Zep 1 album cover - "whats the visual connection with the POI we will visit?" You have to look very closely to see the airship on his gravestone (his R100), left of the words ENGINEER & INVENTOR. Right is an image of his prototype
hypersonic jet, the Swallow.
Riding up
Calvert Road a spaniel had unbridled enthusiasm for joining our ride, thanks
Dave B. for coaxing the dog back to safety.
Then Green Dene, Jenny and David powered up admirably. From there the riding
was mostly easy and downhill, we arrived very much looking forward to warmth
and lunch. There was quite a wait, but it was very good food. Neil C. had a grandly engineered sausage and mash, with vertically structured parsnips.
Another 10
miles of fine riding to Esher. Along with Dave V and Richard we kept together without needing backmarking. It’s a sign of the season that riders moslty aren’t doing end of ride cafe stops, anyway, plenty of appreciations received for the
ride, thanks all.
Big thanks to Hans and Dave Ward for sub-leading and making it a great day out for all of us.
The Stone has has certainly moved about a bit, and, when the original was placed in the Library (before it was moved to the Museum) a replica was made and placed by the Thames in the Lammas Lands.
That's presumably where these chaps were, sitting on the Stone, in 1883. They are Swan-Uppers, and the Stone is presumably the original.
I went to the Lammas Lands to try to find it, but couldn't, and instead relied on Google which had a picture of it by the Old Town Hall. And there it was. If it is a replica, it's a jolly good one, the actual Stone being the small top part of a sort of wedding-cake of stones bearing the names of Mayors and Aldermen. The bottom two are mid-Victorian, which seems to have been the peak of the septennial visiting of the stones by worthies, who no doubt enjoyed a good lunch afterwards.
At the top of the Stone is the word 'STANE', which gives rise to the interesting possibility that there may have been two, as at the seaward end of the Thames. This might imply that the name 'STAINES' is a modernisation of 'STANES'. A number subscribe to this theory, but a weakness that I can see is that the arrangement between Richard the Lionheart and the City of London, which led to the erection of the stones, was in 1197, but 'STANES' is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Slip of the pen, I'm sure.
Anyway, having found my Stone I set off downstream, along the riverbank, passing under Chertsey Bridge.
Now December is here and we're about to meet for our A, B and C group Christmas Lunches it's time to collect annual subscriptions from all Wayfarers. Please remember too that for Third Party Insurance purposes we all need to be members of Cycling UK, of which CTC South West London is a 'Member Group'.
Membership representatives Patrick W (A), Christina B (B) and Helen T (C) are now ready to collect the £2 annual subscriptions from Wayfarers for 2023.
If you are able to pay online, which we encourage you to do, please get in touch with Simon Lambourn or Tim Court for our bank account details if you don't already have them.
Kind regards
Christina
Please let me know if you're coming on our ride from Cobham to The Angel on Wednesday. There will be three groups of us and we'll be aiming to get to the pub around 12:30 or soon after for service to begin at 1 pm.
This is our route:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41334204
If you're not coming on the ride please try to get to the pub around 12:30.
Email or private WhatsApp please
Pam and several elves (gnomes in some cases) will be there in Thames Ditton to meet you.
Tim
Important: please remember to state your pre-order lunch when you send your 'joining' message.
Kingston is traditionally a popular start point, but I was well impressed when 25 Wayfarers signed up for the ride to Clandon. Doubtless the improving weather forecast played its part, for once the chance of a dry ride, no wind and even the possibility of some sun.
With short daylight hours I planned a reasonable distance to lunch, hopefully a convivial lunch, and a short ride back, with everyone home before dark.
For lunch I chose the Bulls Head at West Clandon. It’s a nicely un-modernised free house, and probably our last chance of a visit before it is taken over in January by the Stonegate Group, Britain’s largest pub chain. Hopefully Stonegate will not change it much, but as they are also owners of the Slug & Lettuce pubs, anything is possible.
First group out was led by Geoff Gregory, his first lead since his collision on the Portsmouth Road.
They’re off, short ride to the first jump and we were off and walking over the bridge, a quick chat about the now familiar route via Bushy Park and a slight diversion through the park to miss out the traffic at Hampton Court, Lower Sunbury Road, Walton and along the waterside to Weybridge.
Up we go to Weybridge station and my first miss of the carpark turn off, guessed I would turn too soon but soon put right by other riders (thank you).
Soon at Brooklands and who came storming up behind but Neil and his trusty riders, we slowed to let them take the lead, so good of us as they seemed desperate to get to lunch.
Muddy Lane so named because of the mud? Not so bad as it had been smoothed over by Neil etc. At the kissing gate the two concrete blocks still in place at the side, a hazard where we have had riders fall in the past. We were waved cheerfully on by a local well wisher, Merry Christmas sir, if you enjoy reading the write ups.
Over the lock and on to Pyrford, Send and across the road to Grove Heath Road, Hungry Hill towards the A246. Time to assess how we were doing at Tithebarns Lane. 12.15 should be at the Bulls Head for 12.30, a quick discussion and my suggestion that we do not progress on the route but go up Tithebarns and head straight up The Street so getting us in on time, 12.30 at the Bulls Head.
The pub as usual was welcoming, food and drink orders taken. Neil’s group still waiting for food but had not long arrived, Neil had spotted us take the short cut. Food soon arrived for both groups, very quick and good service. Dave Vs group followed close behind.
Soon time to start back, a group photo by a vintage car (minus two riders for the shoot) and away we go. Back to Tithebarns and straight across onto the farm track prewarned about the state of the track through the farm, not too bad for most of it, but just around the farm area it was very broken up. We travelled through to West Horsley and took the path that ran through to East Horsley and a wriggle through to Forest Road and on to Cobham.
Most of us decided to head home leaving Ged and Dave V to tea.
A big thank you to the group for putting up with the first ride I have been in charge of in a long time.
Next was Neil, with Patrick, Janice, Neil W, Hans, Andy H, Mike R and Dave B.
This week Dave had assigned me just 100 minutes to cover over 24 miles to lunch so I was keen to leave on time. But where were the group? As the Hawker Centre is a new venue for us there is no traditional place to gather, so it took a while to round up everyone.
Just a few minutes late I set off along the towpath and by the time we got to the bridge at Teddington Lock we were all together. I sat on the front of the group (and regretted bringing my heavy bike) while those behind just chatted away. Every time I looked over my shoulder there they were. No stragglers. No need for corner markers. No need for a back marker.
On the descent from Weybridge Station to Brooklands we caught up Geoff's group for a chat but by Byfleet we were on our own again.
After the long drag up to East Clandon we turned onto the dual-carriageway to head for West Clandon. Here the group must have smelt lunch because they all passed me and left me back-marking my own group! But while they negotiated the traffic lights I crossed to the right hand path to cut out the lights and re-take the lead.
The Bull's Head was welcoming, the food good and prompt, and we were on our way in an hour. After a brief discussion as to where to take the photo Janice stepped forward to take the traditional "line of cyclists by pub sign".
After a quick blast to Send it was across to the farm track. There was no wind, the sun was out, and we encountered no traffic - it really is a hidden gem... until the concrete disintegrates.
The route from lunch to Cobham had only taken 45 minutes so we all chose to head for home in the light over another stop.
Thanks to all. Next time I'll bring a lighter bike.
My group was last away. We were nine, including Ged, Steve D, David W, Mark G, Richard Bailey, Frances, Clive and Sue Chasty. Roads were mostly dry, with the notable exception of Muddy Lane and the permanently flooded rail bridge on the climb to East Clandon. There was a hazy sun which lit up the views, particularly in Bushy Park and around Newark Priory ruins.
We reached the Bulls Head on schedule, and all accommodated in the cosy “Saloon Bar”. Food was good and quickly served by the well-organised staff.
There was time for a quick group photo, but already it was clear that temperatures were falling. Even so the cool descent of Clandon Road came as a bit of a shock. The track to Jury’s Farm is always nice, tempered only by the vigilance needed to avoid falling into the widening cracks, and the odd maniacally driven truck.
Dave W left us shortly after lunch and three riders peeled off at Effingham, headed for Leatherhead. Three of us had tea in Cobham where it was still warm enough for alfresco refreshments.
Thanks everyone for riding, to Geoff and Neil C for leading their groups, and in my group special thanks to Steve D for back marking, not to mention treating me to tea.
We were pleased to see Sue out on our B Group ride yesterday.
When Sue decided recently to leave a gift to the Royal Marsden in her will they invited her to write an article to describe her journey through diagnosis, her successful treatment, and the life she lives now.
~ Tim
Kingston YMCA Hawker Centre was full of sporty activity when we arrived for coffee: local school children having a muddy PE session outside, a busy exercise class next to the café and a lot of sweat being generated in the gym. With over 50 cyclists descending on the café we did generate a few curious glances from the regulars. Anyway with our usual staggered arrival times, they coped well and the café proved a nice warm venue.
As I am sure many of you know, Kingston has a proud aeronautics history and the centre is built on the site of the old Hawker factory. Simon has kindly sent through a short history and picture.
The Tonys had agreed to sub lead and I headed out into cool, but promising to be sunny weather, with an enlarged first group of ten. With many local folks in my group I did feel a little superfluous and at one point, beside the river Crane was just stopped from leading them down a dead end! The sun broke through and we had a lovely ride through Osterley Park having encountered mercifully little traffic on the way.
Lunch at The Hare and Hounds was a little slow initially, despite pre orders having been submitted, however they found their groove and my group was back on the road by 1:30 ish. Our route took us down Syon Lane to Gillette Corner and the Great West Road. We joined the nicely tarmacked cycle path alongside the Grand Union Canal and headed south to Syon Park and Isleworth. The subject of bike theft sadly being on everyone’s mind at the moment, Tony Hopkins suggested tea at The Pheasantry in Bushey Park which I decided was an excellent shout. Paula who knows the area like the back of her hand volunteered to lead from Twickenham and we were treated to an excursion through Twickenham Rough, a newly created off-road path to tea.
Many thanks to all those who came along yesterday and especially those who helped with the route creation. It was a route I dug out of the RWGPS filing cabinet that had been rode by Tim C and Bob P a couple of years ago, so thanks to them both too.
~ Sue F.
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| Group 3 version of the ride |
Due to the popularity of next week's Christmas Lunch Pam tells me that there are no more places at the B Xmas lunch... "The Inn is Full!!!. Of course, folks can still eat at The Angel but not with the group!"
There are still some places for the A group lunch on Dec 14th. 🎅
