On the 18th of June, 1938, Billie Fleming set off from Newark in Nottinghamshire and cycled 108.5 miles to Northampton. She visited the towns of Bingham, Grantham, Stamford and Kettering before finally finishing in Northampton. As a tribute as part of Anne Hunt's year-long Tribute to Billie (www.tributetobillie.co.uk) I cycled to the same towns on the same day 77 years later.
My journey didn't start in Newark but from home in Nottingham. I set off early to try to avoid the rush hour traffic through the centre and cycled through Radcliffe before getting to Bingham an hour into the ride. I wanted to have a record of the ride so decided to get a picture of me with each of the town signs I was passing. I suspect Billie didn't do this, so she wouldn't have been worried about getting the whole sign into a selfie... After a few minutes of struggling, a lady walked past who took my picture.
Riding through Bingham I pondered over what it may have looked like when Billie rode - I don't even know if we took the same routes - I guess we must have, in parts at least. One thing is certainly for sure; there would've been a lot fewer cars in the roads in those days. In 1938, the population of Bingham was approx. 1650. Current population stands at around 9000.
It was highly likely that Billie and I travelled the same road between Bingham and Grantham - the A52. I suspect that in 1938 the roads were a lot quieter than during rush hour in modern times, as well as being in black and white of course. Luckily the road is really wide making it a lot safer than some quieter, narrower roads where people take risks overtaking.Grantham is a lot smaller than I remember it being from travelling through before, but I still spent a good 5 minutes waiting at one set of traffic lights. Exiting Grantham I took country lanes down to Stamford - most definitely my favourite part of the ride - gorgeous scenery, gorgeous roads and minimal traffic. There's a good chance Billie would've taken the Great North Road (A1) - what that looked like those days can be seen here: http://youtu.be/Pm_Q7X_-2Ck No chance of finding me on the A1 though - I rather value my life!
Once I got to Stamford - about 4 hours into the ride - things started getting quite tough. Up to that point I'd had the wind behind me and it had been relatively flat. Now the route turned to gain a crosswind and it started getting rather undulating. At this point I came across a petrol station near the village of Morcott. I went in to ask if they had a USB socket I could charge my phone on while I had lunch and the nice chap who worked there directed me to the car workshop alongside the petrol station. Once I explained what a USB socket was to the receptionist and Mavis, who was having her car tyres checked, I managed to get a bit of electricity out of them while I snacked on my goat's cheese and chutney wraps. I'm pretty certain Billie did none of these things outside of Morcott.
Mavis came out and we talked in length about my upcoming challenge, riding around Rutland Water, and the fact that Mavis' daughter and her family live round the corner from me in Wollaton. I do believe that Mavis would've talked all day if I'd let her. As tempting as it was I had rather a few miles to go so I had to tear myself from Mavis and the other friends I'd made in the 45 mins I rested up.
As I mentioned, it had started getting tough, and the distance between Stamford and Kettering felt like an absolute eternity. The saddle was starting to get uncomfortable, the wind was picking up and the hills were plentiful. At least it wasn't raining. Coming into Kettering I met a Motorway Maintenance man who was watching something on his iPad ("just passing the time") but he assisted me in getting my bike over a gate and didn't seem to mind the little bit of snot that I discovered was protruding out of my right nostril.
Up to this point I hadn't had too many difficulties getting pictures of me next to town signs thanks to some passing pedestrians, but the Kettering town sign did not want to play ball. A number of failed attempts later and I manage to get a miserable looking me next to a sign for a town called Ketter. A few seconds later a pedestrian saved the day.
Moving on... My backside hurts, my shoulders hurt, my legs hurt, but at least Northampton is nearby, which meant dropping in on Smith's Farm Shop.
The Smiths are friends of mine; we got to know each other in 2012 when we scaled Kilimanjaro together. They were on their honeymoon... Now they have a toddler named Brody and another one on the way. The farm shop is definitely worth a visit; had I not had another 3 hours to cycle I would've left with half the shop! At the shop they also have a pig of a variety I've never heard of, nor can I remember, and they had some goats, one of which was thoroughly cleaned by the tongue of Pippin, the Wirehaired Fox Terrier.
After a well-earned break that was somewhat longer than I anticipated, I set off on my journey back toward home - I'd roped my dear mother to pick me up from Leicester. This was where I bid farewell to Billie, and to the route I had planned. I had a lovely flat-ish route via Market Harborough but turns out it was along the Lee Valley Trail, which was unlikely to have been suitable for my road bike. Instead I opted for the straightest route via the A4115 (or something), which was lovely and hilly and had a gorgeous headwind - just what I needed for the last couple of hours riding... Just to give you an idea of how my ride just got hillier and hillier the longer it went on, here's my elevation graph from Strava:
At least there was a downhill at the end...
This is the furthest I've ever cycled in one go (121 miles), and it was really bloody tough. People have since pointed out the obvious - this is the kind of thing I'll be doing every day next year. Doesn't that scare me? In a word - no. It's fair to say that I wouldn't be able to do this every day as it stands, because I haven't trained for it, but I am 6 months out and there's plenty of life in these little legs yet! Having done this ride only 4 days after Velothon Wales I'm even more confident that I'll be ready to take on the challenge, come 1 Jan!
This ride taught me a great deal:
Riding through Bingham I pondered over what it may have looked like when Billie rode - I don't even know if we took the same routes - I guess we must have, in parts at least. One thing is certainly for sure; there would've been a lot fewer cars in the roads in those days. In 1938, the population of Bingham was approx. 1650. Current population stands at around 9000.
It was highly likely that Billie and I travelled the same road between Bingham and Grantham - the A52. I suspect that in 1938 the roads were a lot quieter than during rush hour in modern times, as well as being in black and white of course. Luckily the road is really wide making it a lot safer than some quieter, narrower roads where people take risks overtaking.Grantham is a lot smaller than I remember it being from travelling through before, but I still spent a good 5 minutes waiting at one set of traffic lights. Exiting Grantham I took country lanes down to Stamford - most definitely my favourite part of the ride - gorgeous scenery, gorgeous roads and minimal traffic. There's a good chance Billie would've taken the Great North Road (A1) - what that looked like those days can be seen here: http://youtu.be/Pm_Q7X_-2Ck No chance of finding me on the A1 though - I rather value my life!
Once I got to Stamford - about 4 hours into the ride - things started getting quite tough. Up to that point I'd had the wind behind me and it had been relatively flat. Now the route turned to gain a crosswind and it started getting rather undulating. At this point I came across a petrol station near the village of Morcott. I went in to ask if they had a USB socket I could charge my phone on while I had lunch and the nice chap who worked there directed me to the car workshop alongside the petrol station. Once I explained what a USB socket was to the receptionist and Mavis, who was having her car tyres checked, I managed to get a bit of electricity out of them while I snacked on my goat's cheese and chutney wraps. I'm pretty certain Billie did none of these things outside of Morcott.
Mavis came out and we talked in length about my upcoming challenge, riding around Rutland Water, and the fact that Mavis' daughter and her family live round the corner from me in Wollaton. I do believe that Mavis would've talked all day if I'd let her. As tempting as it was I had rather a few miles to go so I had to tear myself from Mavis and the other friends I'd made in the 45 mins I rested up.
As I mentioned, it had started getting tough, and the distance between Stamford and Kettering felt like an absolute eternity. The saddle was starting to get uncomfortable, the wind was picking up and the hills were plentiful. At least it wasn't raining. Coming into Kettering I met a Motorway Maintenance man who was watching something on his iPad ("just passing the time") but he assisted me in getting my bike over a gate and didn't seem to mind the little bit of snot that I discovered was protruding out of my right nostril.
Up to this point I hadn't had too many difficulties getting pictures of me next to town signs thanks to some passing pedestrians, but the Kettering town sign did not want to play ball. A number of failed attempts later and I manage to get a miserable looking me next to a sign for a town called Ketter. A few seconds later a pedestrian saved the day.
Moving on... My backside hurts, my shoulders hurt, my legs hurt, but at least Northampton is nearby, which meant dropping in on Smith's Farm Shop.
The Smiths are friends of mine; we got to know each other in 2012 when we scaled Kilimanjaro together. They were on their honeymoon... Now they have a toddler named Brody and another one on the way. The farm shop is definitely worth a visit; had I not had another 3 hours to cycle I would've left with half the shop! At the shop they also have a pig of a variety I've never heard of, nor can I remember, and they had some goats, one of which was thoroughly cleaned by the tongue of Pippin, the Wirehaired Fox Terrier.
This is the furthest I've ever cycled in one go (121 miles), and it was really bloody tough. People have since pointed out the obvious - this is the kind of thing I'll be doing every day next year. Doesn't that scare me? In a word - no. It's fair to say that I wouldn't be able to do this every day as it stands, because I haven't trained for it, but I am 6 months out and there's plenty of life in these little legs yet! Having done this ride only 4 days after Velothon Wales I'm even more confident that I'll be ready to take on the challenge, come 1 Jan!
This ride taught me a great deal:
- Billie Fleming was awesome
- Always plan your route to take in hills and headwinds first, not the other way around
- Check your route isn't meant for mountain bikes
- Look into getting a new saddle
- Keep eating, even though you really don't want to - take a variety of food
- Villages with funny names like Bitchfield are worth cycling through
- Get a selfie stick or bring your own pedestrian on every ride
- A 9.5-hour ride takes 12 hours if you keep stopping to take pictures
Posted with Blogsy
comparing your ride with Billies, and trying to get into her life must have been very satisfying. The talking to strangers with snot and all is funny, the way the car is parked in the A1 video reminds me of bike tourers today, a lovely read!
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