Purse Caundle and Refurbished Bike

Date:             29th April 2021

Destination: Purse Caundle  and Milborne Port

Distance:     15.24 Miles

Duration:     3 hours 19 minutes

Weather:     11 degrees daily sunny clouded over for last hour

Date:         29th April

With a new rear derailleur, bike chain, front sprockets and rear sprockets, I was back on my own bike for our ride to Purse Caundle this week.  Thanks must go to DK who spent some considerable time sorting it all out for me.  I was advised though that there was still some fine tuning to do, but that my bike would be okay for our journey today.

Replaced bike parts.

Setting off south along Templecombe High Street I noticed my rear tyre was a little flat so we stopped to enable me to pump it up.  This proved to be a very sociable time with two friends stopping for a chat, one was about to catch the 58 bus and the other was out dog walking.  

Tyre fully inflated, we remounted our bikes and continued south towards Yenston.  There is an overgrown cycle path adjacent to Yenston Hill (a single track road), which we would have been forced to take had  traffic lights at the foot of the hill changed to red on our approach.  Fortunately for us the lights turned green for the two cars in front of us, enabling us to use our downhill speed to cycle past the overgrown section before joining the path further up the hill and before the traffic lights changed.   

At Yenston we turned left down Whitchurch lane, left again into Park Lane and then across the A30 towards Marsh Lane and Henstridge Marsh.  Two right turns later and we were heading west and climbing steadily up Landshire Lane.   The following clip pans round from King Alfred's Tower  to Duncliffe Woods and was shot near the top of Landshire Lane, 

View from top half of Landshire Lane

At the top of Landshire Lane we turned right and headed towards the A30.  At the T junction we turned left and cycled along the A30 for a short distance before turning left to Purse Caundle.   

Cycling along the A30

Headwaters from Bishops Caundle, Stourton Caundle and  Caundle Marsh all feed into the Stour, therefore these villages are situated in the Blackmore Vale.    However, streams from around Purse Caundle end up in the Yeo, so effectively Purse Caundle is not located within the Blackmore Vale.  

We rested awhile on a bench set in an hamstone alcove near St Peter's Church, Purse Caundle. On the wall behind us an inscription read, " Remember these who died for right, 1914- 1919."  Above it a list of  four men from the village who had died in the 1st World War.

  

Suitably refreshed we continued on our way and after  a couple of right turns we were cycling along Goathill Road in the opposite direction to the one we normally do.  In the following clip you can just see the blue haze of bluebells as we cycled past.

Goathill Road.

At Goathill  a small hamlet south of Milborne Port, we cycled over the river Yeo, flowing westwards towards Sherborne and Yeovil.

River Yeo, Goathill

On arriving at Milborne Port we took a right along Golding's Lane.  JC had never been around the "back" of Milborne Port so this made a change.  Brook Street was next, then a quick dash across the A30 into Station Road.  Milborne Port's train station located slightly north of the village closed in 1966, the former railway buildings are now in private residential use.  

Golding's Lane, Brook Street, Milborne Port

Instead of heading north, we turned  right into Wheathill Lane.  There has been some development along the lower part of the lane in recent years.  The garden nursery/centre has disappeared and houses have been built in its place.

At the top of Wheathill Lane we stopped and sat on the benches overlooking Milborne Port.  

Wheathill Lane, Milborne Port

After a final rest we headed along Bowden Lane and Road back into Templecombe.

Interestingly, having watched and listened to my videos of the ride I've noticed my bike is a lot quieter than it has been for a long time.  The gears still clunked sometimes when changing and sometimes it was difficult to change down,  but some fine tuning should sort this out.   

Our route today today took us along some roads and to places we'd never cycled to or along before.  It is always great to visit new places and interesting to travel along a road in the opposite direction to usual, as this gives one a totally different perspective.

Route 29th April 2021

Cucklington and Higher Langham

Date:           22nd April 2021

Destination: Cucklington

Distance: 15.42 Miles

Duration: 3 hours 

Weather: 14°C Sunny

DK's bike with my accessories.

With my bike still off the road awaiting a rear derailleur, front sprockets, rear sprocket and chain refit,  I was riding DK's bike today.  (pictured above)  Neither wishing to ride too far with an unfamiliar bike nor  feeling  energetic enough to consider a 20+ mile ride,  we decided to head straight to Cucklington and realise last week's thwarted destination. 

From Templecombe we headed east and after three miles turned left towards Wincanton.  A little further on we turned right into Marsh Lane. 

Although we have cycled along Marsh Lane near Cucklington, many times in the last four and a half years we only spotted the water pump at the roadside earlier this year on our Constable and Gillingham Ride.  This time we wanted to test the pump out to see if it worked, so made it our first stop of the afternoon.   Unfortunately we weren't able to produce a single drop of water.  

Marsh Lane Water Pump

We walked up School Hill, Cucklington, remounting our bikes as we approached Babwell Road.   The "white houses" of Cucklington are very noticeable from the other side of the Blackmore Vale and are located along Babwell Road.  The following clip was taken from behind the "White Houses."

Behind the "White Houses" Babwell Lane, Cucklington

At the end of Babwell Road we stopped to look at an old laundry washing trough.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it on this ride, but did subsequently find out that it is actually called, not surprisingly Bab Well, named after St Barbara. It has medieval origins and is Grade II Listed.  A picture of the trough can be found on the following link.Bab Well - Historic England. 

According to British History Online - Cucklington "St Barbara is depicted in 15th-century stained glass in the parish church."  This will need investigating on a future ride to Cucklington, when lockdown restrictions have been lifted and St Lawrence Church is open to the public again.

St Lawrence Church, Cucklington 

(Photo January 2021)

From Bab Well we cycled up the last part of the hill and as we reached the top we were pleased to note our favourite bench with far reaching views over the Blackmore Vale was free.  We sat there for some considerable time.  Long enough to see  a couple park their car go for a walk and return, two other cyclists arrive and sit on the other bench and set off again and two young men drive up, get out and sit on the fence further along from us for a smoke.  Having monopolised this bench for long enough we thought we ought to finally make a move.  

On our bikes once more, we took an immediate left, cycling up to the top of the ridge where we then headed  southwards.  A short distance later we turned left into Moor Lane.  It was here last week that one of my spokes got stuck in my rear derailleur and hence the reason I'm on DK's bike today.  Turning right we cycled through Higher Langham.  The following clip was taken on the approach to Higher Langham House built in 1770 and a Grade II Listed Building.  Historic England

Higher Langham House

Missing two right turns, which would've meant a shorter ride, we ended up at the T-Junction with Westbrook Road, where we turned right and cycled over Bugley Bridge.  From here it was  steady uphill ride back to the top of the scarp, at which point we turned left and cycled past  Gillingham Town Youth Football Club grounds and then left again for a fast ride down Hartmoor Hill. 

Sandley Tunnel from Bugley Bridge

At the bottom of Hartmoor Hill we turned right for the short ride to  Buckhorn Weston,  where we turned left just before The Stapleton Arms and headed back across the Blackmore Vale towards Templecombe.

To think of a 15 mile bike ride as a short ride would have been unimaginable nearly 5 years ago.  We very much took "baby steps"  when we first started riding together, with distances of approximately six miles the norm.   We gradually built up our fitness over the years to the point where we can now manage journeys of 20 plus miles.  

A slow ride today on a glorious sunny day, we still managed to find a road or two we hadn't cycled before, unearth some interesting facts and of course we had the added bonus that both bikes survived the trip. 

Route 22nd April 2021