Cycling Touring Guide: Northern England E-Book

Harold Briercliffe

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 220

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

The revised edition of the classic cycling guide of 1947 by Harold Briercliffe. Used as the inspiration for the Britain by Bike television series and a vital part of the award-winning Britain by Bike book by Jane Eastoe, the original book is reproduced along with suggested cycling routes in the northern England region for today's cyclists. Harold Briercliffe was the Alfred Wainwright of cycling and his books provide great insight into cycling in various parts of the UK in the 1940s. Harold's fascinating description of the towns, villages and roads of Britain at the time is a joy for all those who love these isles and especially for cyclists looking for inspiration. Many roads have changed over the decades and are now too busy for enjoyable cycling, so Mark Jarman, along with Sustrans, have made suggestions for alternative routes in the region for today's cyclists. The book includes the original photographs taken by Harold Briercliffe and the original illustrations. The Cycling Tourng Guide: Northern England covers cycle routes in the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the North East Coast, plus shorter tours around the Ribble Valley, Forest of Bowland, around Pendle Hill, Bronte Country, Lancashire Coast, Lunedale and the Pennine Link. It also covers shorter trips around the Plain of York, and from Pool to Richmond. The cycle routes vary in length from half day and day-long trips to weekend and week-long tours.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Sam Howard at Sustrans for providing details of the latest Sustrans routes, and to Ruth Briercliffe for her assistance.

First Published 1947

Revised edition published 2012 by First ebook publication 2012

Batsford 10 Southcombe Street London W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Volume © Batsford, 2012 First ebook publication 2012 Additions by Mark Jarman and Sustrans

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

ebook ISBN: 9781849940658

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available in paperback ISBN-13: 9781849940382

Neither the publisher nor the author can accept responsibility for any changes, errors or omissions in this guide, or for any loss or injury incurred during the use of any of the cycling routes.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I—The Lake District

Introduction

Approaches

A Four-day Tour in the Lake District

Lakeland Pass-storming for the Cyclist

A Day Awheel from Little Langdale

Three Day-trips from Keswick

Hill climbing on Foot

Some Centres in the Lake District

Cycling in the Lake District Today

Part II—The Yorkshire Dales

Introduction

Approaches

A Four-day Tour of 113 Miles

A Nine-day Tour in the Dales

Centres for Holidays or Weekends

Cycling in the Yorkshire Dales Today

Part III—The North-east Coast

Introduction

Approaches

A Four-day Tour from York

Some Day Tours

Centres in East and North Yorkshire

Cycling Along the North-east Coast Today

Part IV—Shorter Tours and Connecting Routes

The Ribble Valley and Forest of Bowland

Round Pendle Hill

The Bronte Country

The Lancashire Coast

Lunedale

The Pennine Link

Shorter Tours and Connecting Routes Today

Part V—Day and Week-end Tours

The Western Edge of the Plain of York

Pool to Richmond

Close to the Towns

Day and Week-end Tours today

Appendix

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Approaches to Leven’s Bridge for the Lake District

Blea Tarn and the Langdale Pikes

Newby Bridge

The Church Beck, Coniston Coniston Lake

Approaches to Hellifield for the Yorkshire Dales

Buttertubs Pass, Hawes

Scarborough Castle

Approaches to York

The Shambles, York

Market Cross and Stocks, Bolton-by-Bowland

The Swale at Easby Abbey

The scenic illustrations are taken from drawings by Frank Patterson.

LIST OF PLATES

Friar’s Crag, Derwentwater

Honister Crag from Crummock Water

Ennerdale Water … First ebook publication 2012

Wastwater and Great Gable

Langstrath, between the Stake Pass and Borrowdale

Wrynose Bottom, seen from Hardknott Pass

Gordale Scar

Malham Cove

Swale Bridge, near Richmond

Kilnsey Crag

Staithes Village

Collecting Gull’s Eggs, Bempton Cliff

Fountains Abbey

The Roman Road, Blackstone Edge

Knaresborough

Richmond, Yorkshire

INTRODUCTION

The Britain by Bike TV series was based on a collection of old and largely forgotten cycling guides written by Harold Briercliffe over 60 years ago in the late 1940s. Such was the interest in the TV series and associated book that the guides quickly went from almost unknown on the second-hand market to being highly prized and almost impossible to obtain. Perhaps the main reason for the renewed interest in the guides is that they take you back to a time many now see as cycling’s golden era. They are much more than dated books with directions to help you find your way from A to B. Indeed anyone who sought out the original Northern England guide in the belief that it would provide accurate and reliable information about the best cycle routes in northern England will be rather disappointed. Clearly, as a 21st-century cycling guide, Harold Briercliffe’s routes are not as helpful as they were as so many aspects that impact upon cycling have changed dramatically since the 1940s. For this reason, in this revised reissue the end of each chapter includes details of current recommended Sustrans routes that can be used to help explore the places that Briercliffe visited on his cycle journeys. The real joy of Harold’s original books is their insight into Britain in an earlier age and they provide a reminder of a gentler pace of life and the attractions of cycle touring around Britain.

The starting point for understanding and appreciating the guides is to look at the context in which they were written. In the post-war years, Harold Briercliffe was a writer for Cycling magazine, then the UK’s main cycling publication. The guides were assembled from the feature articles written in the magazine, with each issue covering an area of the UK that later formed the basis of a chapter within the regional guides. The first guide was published in 1947 and covered northern England. Over the next few years a further five were produced, ending with the Southern England guide, published in 1950.

The post-war Britain that Briercliffe encountered on his cycling journeys was a place in the midst of austerity, where rationing strictly controlled the availability of essentials, including food, clothes and fuel. It is worth remembering that at the end of the 1940s only 1 in 7 households had access to a car. If you were one of the few that did have a car your family’s vehicle was likely to have little in common with today’s air-conditioned people carriers and 4 x 4s. The most popular cars of the day were rather uncomfortable and modestly sized by modern standards with the Morris Minor and the Austin A30 being two of the most popular 1950s models. For most people, the main methods of mechanised transportation were rail, bus and, of course, the bicycle. With the average workers’ holiday being only one or two weeks a year, the bicycle was seen as a key form of transport, offering cheap and easy access to the UK’s places of interest (alongside bus and rail). During this period, the UK’s cycling industry output was moving towards its peak. Numerous manufacturers produced bicycles not only for the domestic market but for export all over the world. Notable companies from that era include Phillips, Dawes, BSA, Holdsworth, Royal Enfield, Elswick, Sunbeam, Evans, Claud Butler, Bates and Hetchins. But it was Raleigh that became established as the leading bicycle manufacturer of the day with the company’s bicycle production reaching a peak of over a million in 1951. This increase in demand and supply was accompanied by advances in design so that bicycles became much more suited to longer distance touring. The use of lightweight 531 tubing to build the classic diamond-shaped frame (including randonneur handlebars), and the introduction of the simplex derailleur gear system and cantilever brakes, meant that the bicycles available in the early 1950s looked remarkably like modern touring bikes (although today’s bicycles benefit from sophisticated alloys of steel and aluminium as well as a much greater range of gears).

For those who might have been slightly less enthusiastic about spending their leisure time on a bike, there was relatively little to encourage them to stay indoors. This was a world without games consoles, personal stereos, home computers or wide-screen TVs. By the beginning of the 1950s only 8% of households in the UK had a TV. For the few television owners, there was only one station (ITV did not join the BBC until 1955) and the broadcasting hours were very limited. So for the vast majority, the radio ‘wireless’ provided the main source of family entertainment within the home. Cinema was the only other boom area for entertainment.

Against this background of ongoing rationing and limited forms of entertainment, it is perhaps easier to understand the reasons why Harold Briercliffe (approaching 40) embarked on the monumental task of covering the whole of the UK by bike. Following production of the Northern England guide in 1947, Briercliffe’s articles in Cycling magazine were gradually used to form a series of regional guides covering the Scottish Highlands, Wales, south west England, and the Midlands before finishing with southern England.

Briercliffe defined the area covered by his Northern England guide as primarily covering the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North East Coast with shorter tours over the Pennines and across to the Lancashire Coast. It is a region of some variety although relatively compact and does not include some areas to the north of the Midlands (including parts of Lancashire and Cheshire), which Briercliffe decided should be featured within the vast area included in his Midlands guide.The introduction to the Northern England guide was written by Harry England, then the well-established editor of Cycling, Britain’s weekly cycling newspaper, which was first published in 1891. The introduction is very much of its time, painting post-war Britain at the dawn of a new era. Harry England looks optimistically towards the future, stating that the new series of Briercliffe’s touring guides had been designed for a modern type of cyclist looking to travel longer distances and basing these tours on the increasing availability of bed-and-breakfast accommodation and youth hostels in the countryside.

In 1940s Britain it was certainly difficult to anticipate the extent and pace of the changes over the next 60 years, particularly in terms of housing and traffic growth. Briercliffe suggests the use of what are now very busy ‘A’ roads to cycle out of main urban areas. In the Northern England guide he does not mention the unsuitability of A roads because of high-volume traffic. Similarly he makes no reference to the need to avoid the M1 and M62 motorway network around Leeds, or the M6 to the northwest, because in 1950 Britain’s motorway network was still very much on the drawing board. In 1946 the first map was published showing the planned motorway system, including the M1, M4, M5, M6, M62 and M18. In the same year, the government announced an 80% expansion of the trunk road system, adding 3,500 miles to the network. A series of trunk-road improvements took place throughout the 1950s, a decade which ended with the opening of the M1 in November 1959.

This gradual increase in Britain’s highway capacity coincided with the growth in car ownership and use. The Department for Transport has recorded levels of use of the various types of transport (in annual billion vehicle kms) every year since 1949. Cycling has declined rapidly since the 1950s from a high of 24 billion vehicle kms in 1949 to around 5 billion vehicle kms in 2010. In the same 61-year period, car usage has risen from just over 20 billion vehicle kms in 1949 to almost 400 billion vehicle kms by 2010. Against this backdrop, it is little wonder that the road conditions Briercliffe describes at the end of the 1940s bear so little relationship to what would be found if you tried cycle touring on Britain’s trunk roads today.

In addition, Britain experienced significant house building in the postwar years, leading to the expansion of major urban conurbations as well as some of our smaller towns and cities. There are many reminders of the obvious changes that have occurred since the 1940s in Briercliffe’s description of the places he visits on his journeys. Briercliffe’s route from London towards the Midlands and the North passed through Stevenage, which had recently been designated a New Town by the New Towns Act of 1946. Stevenage was transformed from a town of around 6000 people to a major urban area with a population of over 80,000. The 1946 Act resulted in similar levels of development in a ring of New Towns around London, with places such as Bracknell, Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Basildon and Harlow all growing rapidly. Further north, the first generation of New Towns included Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee. A second wave of new-town building followed in the 1960s with the most significant northern England development at Washington, Tyne and Wear. The focus remained on development further south, however, with the largest at Milton Keynes.

You might wonder whether, in the face of so much housing development, road building and traffic growth since 1950, if any of the UK that Briercliffe discovered on his journeys still exists. It is therefore reassuring to find that so much of the distinctive character of Briercliffe’s Britain can still be discovered by the cycle tourist. This applies more to Northern England than many other parts of the UK (most notably the South East) which have been subject to far greater development pressures. Much of the landscape identified by Briercliffe in his Northern England guide has also been protected by its designation as National Park land. The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Northumberland are amongst four of the ten National parks that were designated by Government in 1949. In the period since the time of the legislation, strict planning controls have limited the amount of development so that much of the varied landscape described by Briercliffe remains as it was in the 1940s. The last sixty years represents a mere blink of an eye in comparison to the millions of years over which the geological foundation of the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales was formed. The mix of rock types, including limestone, sandstone and granite, have a significant impact on the ecology of the area and these contrasts can still be viewed when cycling from the Lake District through to the Dales.The touring cyclist will discover that the physical characteristics remain unchanged in the sense that the heights of the main Lakeland mountains are as they were stated by Briercliffe, together with the altitude of the passes and the dimensions of the lakes.

What has changed, of course, is the level of traffic on the network of roads crossing the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. Many of the on-road routes mentioned by Briercliffe (particularly in the Lake District) are no longer suitable for leisure cycling. In contrast, the network of off-road cycle routes is now much more extensive than it was 60 years ago. Back in the 1940s Briercliffe was keen to emphasise that the off-road tracks and paths were steep and rocky and generally uncomfortable for cycling. This explains why one chapter of Briercliffe’s guide was devoted to ‘Pass-Storming’ – an approach to off-road cycling involving picking up and carrying your bike along the roughest and steepest sections of path. It is interesting to read Briercliffe’s advice about how to tackle pass-storming in an era well before mountain bikes. Another chapter is called “Hill Climbing on Foot”, advising the Lake District cyclist “to discard his bicycle whenever he can and climb a hill.” Given that traffic levels in the Lake District are considerably higher than they were 60 years ago and that the off-road alternatives for cyclists are now much more extensive it makes sense for today’s cyclists to refer to the Sustrans route information included at the end of each chapter if embarking on Lake District cycling.

Briercliffe’s account of cycling in the Yorkshire Dales provides an interesting contrast to the Lake District. It has a more contemporary feel in the sense that much of the surrounds can still be enjoyed using the minor-road network identified in the guide. The minor road network continues to provide some suitable links to many of the villages that Briercliffe describes with such affection. Particular favourites of Briercliffe’s were Clapham, Burnsall, Wensley, Arncliffe and Masham with Keld being singled out as the best of the bunch. One aspect of cycling in the Dales that has diminished is the easy availability of cheap overnight accommodation. Bed-and-breakfast places are, of course, still widely available (although not at an average price of six shillings a night!) but the number of rural youth hostels has dramatically reduced as a result of the Youth Hostel Association’s (YHA) closure programme. This would not have been anticipated by Briercliffe back in the late 1940s when membership of the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) was heading towards its peak. At the start of the 1950s there were 303 youth hostels and over 200,000 YHA members. Increased availability of holidays abroad and changes in the level of walking and hiking resulted in a gradual fall in demand for YHA accommodation. This led to closures and a modernisation programme with the emphasis on providing better youth-hostel facilities in towns and cities. Around 100 of the hostels (particularly those in more remote rural areas) were closed. Today’s touring cyclists planning a holiday in the Lake District or elsewhere in northern England should check with the YHA to see which of Briercliffe’s recommended youth hostels are still available.

Travelling beyond the Yorkshire Dales through the North York Moors and on to the North East coast, Briercliffe suggests a number of routes that have since become much less suitable for cycling. Today the route options include an ideal traffic-free path, which was the Scarborough and Whitby Railway line, which first opened in 1885. The railway line was closed in 1965 as a casualty of the infamous ‘Beeching Axe’ which fell in the 1960s and resulted in the closure of more than 4,000 miles of railway branch lines and 3,000 stations. In the last few decades some of these old railway routes have been converted to form excellent paths for cyclists and pedestrians. As cycle routes, they have become a much-valued facility, free from the hazards of fast-moving motor vehicles and are generally very flat, not exceeding a gradient of more than about 1 in 20. So today’s reader wanting to revisit the ‘Centres in Yorkshire’ described by Briercliffe would be well advised to consider using routes such as the popular Scarborough to Whitby cycle path, which forms part of the Sustrans National Cycle Route 1 (see page 108).

In Harold’s final chapters there are plenty of reminders of the variety of landscape and surroundings in Northern England. Briercliffe recommends exploring the Lancashire coastline from Liverpool northwards. He sets out a day tour taking in an area that includes Southport, described as ‘a large and rather select seaside resort’, as well as Blackpool and the area inland from Morecambe Bay. This area has experienced significant traffic growth over the last 60 years with the development of an extensive motorway network, including the M6, M55 and M65 as well as the expansion of the general trunk-road system. While some of Briercliffe’s suggested routes are therefore no longer appropriate, there is a network of recently designated cycle routes, such as National Cycle Route 62 (see page 150) and Regional Routes 90/91 (see page 136), which provide an excellent option for exploring the area. Travelling across the Yorkshire Dales, Briercliffe seems very keen on encouraging cyclists to visit the city of York. His description of The Shambles and other streets around York Minster still seems reasonably accurate 60 years later. The York Minster restoration scheme means the impressive cathedral remains much as Briercliffe described even though the building was engulfed in fire in 1984. The importance of the city’s chocolate manufacturing has certainly declined from the 1950s when the output from two companies, Rowntree and Terry’s, was so great that York was known as Chocolate City. No doubt Briercliffe would be pleased to know that York was recently designated ‘Cycling City’ with almost £4 million provided by the government to increase cycling facilities and encourage access by bike to many of the city’s wonderful historic places and buildings.

Mark Jarman

2012

FOREWORD

By

H. H. England

Editor of Cycling

IN the past twenty years the development of the Youth Hostels Association has brought into the field of cycle touring an entirely new type of cyclist, and the popularity of the sport is growing with the passing of every year.

Many guide books published hitherto, while being excellent and informative within their own sphere, have ignored the fact that for the cyclist a very special approach is needed. It is to meet these particular requirements that this present series of touring guides, written by a cyclist with some twenty-five years of touring experience behind him, has been designed.

For this reason the author has not aimed at being comprehensive, but has preferred to discriminate in his choice of routes and centres so that the newcomer to the sport may be given a clear and simple lead in his task of discovering the countryside. And while, for example, only one of the several routes up Helvellyn is described, considerable space is devoted to the technique of “pass-storming”—a feature of particular interest to the cyclist and conspicuously absent from previous works.

This guide to Northern England is to be followed by companion volumes, until the whole of the British Isles has been brought within their scope, and it is to be hoped that they will prove as useful in informing the cyclist about our British countryside as the Cycling Manual and Cycling Book of Maintenance have been in introducing him to his own machine.

PART I

THE LAKE DISTRICT

INTRODUCTION

THE scenery of England reaches its highest level in the Lake District, the north-west corner of the country that comprises parts of Cumberland, Westmorland and the Furness District of Lancashire. Within a ring that is no more than 20 miles across at its broadest is to be found nearly every type of country, from the nobility of the highest mountains in England, by the contrasted charm of lakes and tarns, through a whole series of landscapes that attract the eye, in hillside, stream, fall, seashore and moorland. Kendal, Penrith, Cockermouth and Broughton-in-Furness are nearly, but not quite, the corners of a rectangle that encloses all the scenic beauty of Lakeland.

Yet within this small area is to be found such riches, so little dullness, that it does not suffer in comparison with other and more noted touring regions. In Lakeland everything—or nearly everything—seems to be in accord. Proportion rather than height or width gives the Lakeland mountains their unique charm, coupled with the fact that most of the giants amongst the hills can be seen from foot to head at a glance. Into these massive frames fit the lakes themselves, with their many tributary streams and waterfalls. Amidst these hills water is always sparkling and fresh, as the builders of reservoirs know only too well. Both Thirlmere and Haweswater now slake Manchester’s thirst.

Lakeland is not cyclists’ country in the same way as the Yorkshire Dales or North Wales. The central valleys mostly run up into the knot of hills which rises to Scafell Pike. Through main routes are few, with the exception of the main Kendal-Windermere-Ambleside-Keswick highway, which serves as an artery that during the summer is too congested with motor traffic to be popular with the cyclist.

The rider who thinks that he can tour Lakeland as he would Devon and Cornwall, or even the West Highlands, by riding from one main road junction to another at high speed will find that he has gone through the region in half a day, and will probably end by wondering why there is such a ‘to-do’ about the English Lake District.

No district in Britain is better seen by the cyclist from a centre, or several centres, than Lakeland. Indeed, while the writer does not agree with those people who say that the Lakes cannot be seen otherwise than by walking, he believes that the tourist who deserts his bicycle to climb hills or to explore valleys or to row will get nearer to the heart of the Lake country than those who cling faithfully to two wheels. If it can be arranged, a Lakeland week might consist of two nights in the Elterwater area west of Grasmere (for the south side of the District), three nights about Derwentwater or in Borrowdale (for the north), and two nights around Strands, at the foot of Wastwater or in Eskdale (for the south-west). From and between these points he will be able to see all the large lakes with the exception of Haweswater, which is still suffering from the building of Manchester’s second Lakeland reservoir—and which can be left out of a week’s tour.

Accommodation of all kinds is plentiful, ranging from palatial hydros to homely farmhouses. There are over 20 youth hostels too, most of them situated in parts of the district that are of especial beauty. The family man will find in the small resorts of Ravenglass, Seascale and St. Bees seaside quarters that are within short distances of some of the best of Lakeland scenery. A word of warning is necessary, however, about accommodation at holiday times, such as Easter, Christmas and the months of July and August. Those who wish to visit Lakeland at these times would be advised to book well in advance. This warning applies particularly to the youth hostels in the central area, at places like Grasmere and Borrowdale.

The main roads of the Lake District are now as smooth as those of other districts of Britain. Even the roads up the side valleys that are virtual culs-de-sac are now, for the most part, tarred. These minor highways are nearly always narrow and winding, as well as undulating, but as these conditions cause the majority of motorists to be cautious, there is little danger on them. Cyclists should take heed, however, of the danger-boards at the head of hills—they mean all that they say in the Lake District.

Notable as exceptions to the rule that the minor roads are now smooth are the two road passes of Wrynose and Hardknott, on the only direct east-to-west route between Ambleside and the west coast north of Barrow. These roads were barred to tourists during part of the war, and their surfaces remain rutted and riddled with watercourses. The true cycle-tourist does not object to the element of adventure and the comparative solitude that results from this state of affairs.