Date: 22nd April 2021
Destination: Cucklington
Distance: 15.42 Miles
Duration: 3 hours
Weather: 14°C Sunny
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.
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."
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.
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
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.
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.
An aquatic engineering theme this week, with the pump and washing trough. Most timely, as we finally get in early May some of the rain we'd normally expect to receive in April.
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