Heatley & Warburton Station (Disused)

• Book: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe Movie Storybook
• Distance Travelled: 20 miles
• Mud churned onto bike: at least 10kg

On Paper this was a lovely Sunday ride. Out on the Trans Pennine Trail to Warrington and back along the Bridgewater Canal. In the main it was pleasant, if a little cold. However with lots of recent rain the stretch of the canal from Warrington to Lymm was like Glastonbury in a bad year. Mud everywhere – a nice 20 mile route felt more like a hard 30 – but all to the good I suppose.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

I enjoyed this one for another reason. The lady that responded to my latest Freecycle ad had a purpose. She provides transport for a young man with Learning Disabilities who has an obsession with the Chronicles of Narnia and with Harry Potter and this book would be very well received. She’d wanted to pick it up on her to the young man as he lived near me but I explained my project which she really liked and I lined the weekend up for delivery – I’m told the book was well received.

I wanted to talk separately about the section of the Trans-Pennine that I ride on quite a bit. This particular section, from Altrincham to Warrington was once known as the Lymm Railway but has been transformed into a walking / cycling / running / horse riding thoroughfare. Like many such railways it became increasingly little used as a result of the growth of the motor car ad roads to support – it became one of many victims of the Beeching Report – testaments countrywide to the once formidable power of the railways. Many lines are being reopened largely due to volunteers but I doubt this would ever see the return of trains – only in ghostly apparition, smoke billowing in the night.

The Station

About 4 miles into the straight, flat stretch there is a station building and platform, overgrown, but recognisable – I often think when I pass it that if I won just enough money to indulge passions I’d but the station and set up a little cafe for the many passers by whatever the mode of transport. Perhaps a corner of the cafe could contain history of the railway and any images we could find that folk could peruse whilst sipping their tea and eating their homemade cake / bacon butty. There would be space for locking of bicycles and chairs along the platform to drink in the sun when it deigned to put in an appearance..... And back to reality

Two for the price of One

• Books: A Handbook of Communications Skills & Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire
• Miles Travelled: 20
• Trip Highlight: The Canal Boat Graveyard

The Canal Boat graveyard was a ‘should have bought my phone moment’ – I’m sure I’ll be back that way again, but it was an unexpected sight whilst pootling along the Bridgewater Canal in the mid-section of this particular book delivery. You’ll either need to go there or await my return with camera / phone.

The two book thing was a little bit of a cheat to be honest. The communication skills book has been added to the ‘work library’, which essentially means its bulking out the shelf on the bookcase in my office. Of course there are a few people I could recommend read it but I’m much too diplomatic for that (maybe I’ll add the diplomacy book later).

However, the good thing was that work was on the route of one of the ways I could get to the second drop off, so I got to ride a decent section of the Bridgewater canal  which runs from Runcorn to Leigh. To press the furthest west I’ve been is Lymm and this trip extended the route East to Stretford (it does run all way into Manchester). Between Altrincham and Stretford it’s a tale of second half good, first half not so good, to reverse a caricatured Sven Goran Eriksson quotation. From Altrincham to Brooklands Tram station is rutted and gets extremely muddy and is not for the faint hearted (particularly of a winters evening). Past Brooklands and its had some good investment and attracts cyclists, runners, people walking their dogs and others just out for a stroll – a vision of what all urban canal sides should be.

Having located the drop off point I manoeuvred my way back to the Trans Pennine Way – National Cycle Route 62 – of which more in later posts I think. Suffice to say that the mid stretch of this, which cuts through some woods adjacent to farmland was heavily flooded with patches of up to 50 metres at a time of the pathway under water. Luckily a ‘serious’ MTBer had passed me earlier but was struggling to shake me off and he acted as my guinea pig to make sure they were passable (they were just – good test for the bike in its first off road excursion)

All in all it was a good Sunday ride out, 20 miles bagged, 2 books delivered and £2.20 added to the charity pot. Shame about the lack of photos though.