I
first organised this run for the Cambridge D.A. of The Cyclists'
Touring Club in 1958 when I lived
close to this route. It was then approx. eight miles off road. In fifty
years it has changed, trees that were fairly small then are now very
large. the route was regularly used then by farmers and forestry
workers but is now overgrown in places but still passable. One three
mile stretch has now been made a hard road linking Mundford Road with
East Wretham, it is very quiet and pleasant. Whilst the east end of the
drove has improved, the Peddars Way has deteriorated and become
overgrown.
I decided in 2007 that I would organise this run again for the Tuesday pensioners group, in the event there were only two of us. I put the bikes in my estate car and drove to Santon Downham Forestry Office where we parked and then cycled north to the Harling Drove (Norfolk Route 30). Turning East we started on the Drove Road which runs in an easterly direction for about eight miles. George was riding his Mercian with 28mm tyres and drop-bars, totally unsuitable for loose sand and after a short distance he decided to turn back and go to the lunch stop (The Nags Head, East Harling) by road. I gave him instructions for the road route and he arrived five minutes before me.
I continued on to the Mundford Road junction, I was riding my Abbey Mixte with downhill bars and 32mm Schwalbe Marathon tyres. The Shimano Megarange Superlow gears were a great asset.
I decided in 2007 that I would organise this run again for the Tuesday pensioners group, in the event there were only two of us. I put the bikes in my estate car and drove to Santon Downham Forestry Office where we parked and then cycled north to the Harling Drove (Norfolk Route 30). Turning East we started on the Drove Road which runs in an easterly direction for about eight miles. George was riding his Mercian with 28mm tyres and drop-bars, totally unsuitable for loose sand and after a short distance he decided to turn back and go to the lunch stop (The Nags Head, East Harling) by road. I gave him instructions for the road route and he arrived five minutes before me.
I continued on to the Mundford Road junction, I was riding my Abbey Mixte with downhill bars and 32mm Schwalbe Marathon tyres. The Shimano Megarange Superlow gears were a great asset.
Mundford Road junction
I had now passed the most
difficult part.
The end of
the difficult part
Start of
three miles hard surfaced road
I
started on this stretch which was very pleasant with little traffic.
Looking back
at Croxton New Buildings
Start of the
off road section to Langmere
This doesn't look
promising, but it gets better.
Looking back
along the drove at Langmere
Your first
view of Langmere
Wildfowl
on Langmere
The way
forward
Ringmere,
to the south of the
route
Looking back
along the drove
The road to Roudham Junction (formally the Swaffham line)
The road to Roudham Junction (formally the Swaffham line)
This is the area where I worked in the late 1950's, we had 24 acres of forest nursery at that time. We grew 3.5 million trees a year which were sent to forestry units all over the UK and abroad.
The way
forward to Peddars Way
Going on to Peddars Way and Shadwell Crossing (formerly Roudham
Crossing), I was surprised to see how overgrown it had become. Whilst
the road through Roudham Forest is a good hard gravel road, Peddars Way
would hardly qualify as a cart track (it would be difficult to get a
horse and cart through it).
Peddars Way
Peddars Way
I carried on to
Bridgham and
East Harling, where George had arrived five minutes before me. We had
lunch at The Nags Head and then both did the return journey to Santon
Downham along the drove with the exception of the loose sandy bit where
we did a detour around it.
We had a very pleasant day, thanks to the Forestry Commission, and a very good lunch at The Nags Head.
The only snag was that when on the way home on the A14 we ran into a tailback of traffic at Newmarket, which moved very slowly (I think George would have got home quicker by cycling the A14 and walking back up the Nine Mile Hill slip road and into Cambridge that way). We carried on to the A11/A14 split and found the A14 was closed. All traffic had to use the A11 so we went to the Great Wilbraham junction and turned off. We found that the road into Cambridge was also jammed with traffic. We heard on the radio that there had been an explosion at the Girton interchange, A lorry carrying industrial gases had turned over, caught fire and cyclinders started exploding. I took George to the Park & Ride so he could cycle home on the Jubilee cycleway, whilst I went back to Quy and spent a couple of hours at my cousins house waiting for the situation to cool down. I eventually got home after 8.0pm (should have been home by 5.0pm).
We had a very pleasant day, thanks to the Forestry Commission, and a very good lunch at The Nags Head.
The only snag was that when on the way home on the A14 we ran into a tailback of traffic at Newmarket, which moved very slowly (I think George would have got home quicker by cycling the A14 and walking back up the Nine Mile Hill slip road and into Cambridge that way). We carried on to the A11/A14 split and found the A14 was closed. All traffic had to use the A11 so we went to the Great Wilbraham junction and turned off. We found that the road into Cambridge was also jammed with traffic. We heard on the radio that there had been an explosion at the Girton interchange, A lorry carrying industrial gases had turned over, caught fire and cyclinders started exploding. I took George to the Park & Ride so he could cycle home on the Jubilee cycleway, whilst I went back to Quy and spent a couple of hours at my cousins house waiting for the situation to cool down. I eventually got home after 8.0pm (should have been home by 5.0pm).