I did this bike ride on 10 September 2020, with Lyn and Robert. (Report here.) Today's visit to the Preston Guild Wheel (PGW) followed a decision to leave an OMC (Old Man of Coniston) walk to a later date. This proved to be a wise decision, as we avoided strong winds and afternoon rain that would have affected the OMC trip.
We assembled at Don and Liz's house in Preston, an easy 4km ride on woodland tracks to the start of our PGW route. The 21 mile PGW ride goes around the periphery of Preston and can be started from any convenient point along the route. I noticed a sign to Longridge (3 miles) at one point, so BC (Bowland Climber), who lives in Longridge, could either start from home or from near this sign.
Anyway, we got going well before 10am and soon reached the pedestrian bridge not far from the railway bridge over the River Ribble. The PGW route passes this bridge on the northern side of the river, so we joined it there, on the overcast day.
We took the same clockwise route that I'd enjoyed with Lyn and Robert. No navigational aids were needed as the route is very well signposted and Don has done it around 20 times.
We soon passed the bandstand in Miller Park, overlooked by a fine old municipal building.
Some of the sections of the ride that are beside the river pass through lovely tree-lined avenues.
Relics from Preston's industrial past liberally litter the route. I didn't stop for many photos as I was conscious of holding up the flying peleton of Don and Sue, on a day when rain was predicted to arrive around the same time as we would finish the ride.
The River Ribble is tidal around here, and the Albert Edward Dock has a large lock to protect it from the Ribble's tidal movements.
A millennium project retored the link between the Ribble and the Lancaster Canal, but we didn't see anyone using the canal.
A strong feature of the entire ride is woodland passages like the one below, presumably taking advantage of disused railway lines and the like.
The canal needs more ducks to clear the weed!
It's noticeable along much of the route, particularly on the northern sections, that new housing estates are springing up almost anywhere. And the 'Ancient Oak' in Cottam doesn't look at all ancient!
Some trees have shed all their leaves, others haven't started, but today's breezes will have accelerated the process.
We passed a memorial, near the
Pinfold mentioned in my earlier report, to Private James Towers, awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery in 1918. Click on the images for more readable versions.
A little further on, before a vaguely technical descent over slippery cobbles to Brockholes Nature Reserve, there's a memorial to Peter Rimmer, the 'architect of the Guild Wheel. This was the ideal place to stop and enjoy our coffee and other refreshments.
Then we continued on our merry way along the well marked route.
Past Brockholes*, and back beside the river, we enjoyed the smooth surfaces of tree lined avenues as we cruised back to the footbridge and a final 4km back to Don and Liz's house where we enjoyed lunch and excellent freshly made cake. Thanks Liz, that was delicious.
Here's our route - 8km shorter than the one I took with Lyn and Robert - 42km with 300 metres ascent, taking us a shade over 3 hours, including our leisurely break.
It's a lovely route, I'll be happy to do that again.
*The descent to Brockholes has signs asking cyclists to dismount, perhaps for Health and Safety and concerns that fallers might sue the council if they weren't warned about the steep descent. It's perfectly easy to ride down, but if anyone is not comfortable with that it doesn't really require any significant level of intelligence to simply dismount and walk.
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