A lovely sociable ride today with Barry and Monica. Barry brought his road bike in the car, and Monica borrowed by ebike, having tried it for size a couple of weeks ago. The plan was somewhere flat to a nice coffee stop and around 20 miles. Since they had never ridden in the local Wokingham area, the Hurst Lanes, Shurlock Row and Waltham St Lawrence are hard to beat, so we kept it simple. Wargrave was our destination having checked that H'Artisan is open on a Tuesday.
Route
We left Woosehill on Simon's Lane, using the A329 to Winnersh and at the entrance to Dinton Pastures turned right into Davies Way and Little Hill Road. Then on Lines Road we crossed the A321 to continue around the Hurst Lanes, turning right into Broadcommon Lane. The fields on our right full of rape crop.
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| Broadcommon Lane, Hurst |
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| Broadcommon Lane, Hurst. Photo stop (and nose blow 😁) |
At the end, we turn left and ride on The Straight Mile, then right into the "other" Straight Mile into Shurlock Row Village.
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| Passing through Shurlock Row Village |
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| Pretty Shurlock Row cottage |
In the centre of the village we turned left, then later right into Brook Lane. At the end of Brook Lane, another right turn passing the pretty Waltham St Lawrence school.
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| Waltham St Lawrence school |
Straight over at the 5 way Xroads, and soon we pass the Old Bell pub.
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| Old Bell, Waltham St Lawrence |
Leaving WSL, I suggest Monica use the power button, as we continue crossing the railway line at Milley Bridge, continuing slightly uphill to the A4 junction at Hare Hatch. A dogleg over, and into Tag Lane. Left at the top and around Wargrave to finally drop down School Lane to the traffic lights on the main street. We walk it around the corner to H'Artisan, where we can hang our bikes indoors on the racks. A bit fiddly! The shop only recently opened and has only done takeaway until very recently.
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| photo by Monica. The smaller green door on the right is the bike rack entrance |
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| H'artisan bike entrance |
This is our first time able to use the garden. Food all lovely! Monica and I shared a cheese scone (toasted), Barry a ham and cheese croissant, and John (guess what?) a chocolate brownie.😋. Thanks for treating us Monica.
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| Monica playing Mum. |
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| Excellent garden space and nice to see it busy |
We now go back towards the Xroads, and right at the lights, and through the alley to the Church onto Station Road, and joined Loddon Drive. (My friend Sharon who lives locally insists we should just ignore the signs saying Private no entry!).
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| Monica ahead over the first bridge, where we now turn left |
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| View at the first bridge |
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| photo by Monica |
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| photo by Monica |
I asked them all to let me get ahead to get a photo of them riding towards me, and Barry forgot to unclip. Oops. He got a bit tangled.
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| Man down. |
At the end of Loddon Drive, we used the cyclepath on the A4 for a short distance, then crossed to Charvil, and cut through the bridge at the ford next to the Heron on the Ford.
As we moved into the field, there were no horses today, and the horse owner offered to open the main gate to allow us through to the lane (avoiding the stile at the other end, which is a faff).
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| Horse owner about the open the gate for us |
Now through Hurst onto Tape Lane, and up the "rise" to the Church and Castle Inn. Left at the funny junction at the bottom where there was quite a commotion with birds including Red Kites following where the tractor had been, catching worms presumably.
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| Lots of Red Kites on the ground ( if you squint) |
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| Monica watching the Kites swooping down to the field |
Home via Green Lane, and back to Winnersh repeating our outward route. We clocked up 23 miles and all of 300 feet. But that was probably enough for Monica, a non cyclist, who did very well and ended rightly feeling satisfied with her achievement.
We had invited Barry and Monica to have lunch with us in the garden (still not allowed people indoors), so we enjoyed a leisurely lunch before they left us at around 4pm. A lovely day, and we all look forward to the next one.
