ABC Towns and Villages

[Mr Celine]

I only came upon this thread recently and due to the weather and other weekend comitments haven't been out much recently, so thought I'd give it a go today, starting with Ancrum.

Followed by Bowden -

Excuse the poorly positioned saddle. The next village is definately C L I N T M A I N S.

Darnick -

And lastly Earlston, though if it's the home of Thomas the Rhymer they should spell it Ercildoune.

And a map of today's perambulations -

40.3 miles @13.4 mph. 829 metres ascent.

The challenge looks like plain sailing up to Q. The nearest one I can think of is 40 miles away and all my rides start and finish at home so I'll need to up the fitness level somewhat. I can't think of a V, X or Z anywhere in range.

 

[iandg]

Already snapped an A. Plenty of B, C and D's (Callanish, Dun Carloway, Dail Baeg, Brue, Bragar, Barvas) on today's ride but (in order of passage) I snapped Breasclete, Carloway and Dail Mor

 

[Oldfentiger]

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Best start planning my route this Sunday to grab the next sequence of letters. I was waiting to see what the weather would do and looks like mild all this week. So plans are afoot!

 

[The Bystander]

A few Finedons, a Grafton Underwood, some Geddingtons and a Harrington

 

[rugby bloke]

Took the day of to celebrate my birthday so a chance to nip out for a nice 30 miler to bag M, N & O. I'm amazed considering all the Northants riders doing the challenge we are not stepping on each other's toes very often. Not surprisingly the Northampton sign has graffiti on it ..

 

[biggs682]

Took the day of to celebrate my birthday so a chance to nip out for a nice 30 miler to bag M, N & O. I'm amazed considering all the Northants riders doing the challenge we are not stepping on each other's toes very often. Not surprisingly the Northampton sign has graffiti on it ..

Very true actually , i very seldom see many people out in the early hours i ride

 

[The Bystander]

I'm amazed considering all the Northants riders doing the challenge we are not stepping on each other's toes very often.

We'll probably all be barging each other out of the way to get to John O'Gaunt later on... Happy birthday.

 

[EltonFrog]

My nearest J is over 37 miles way, I don't have the luxury of spending all day in the saddle so I had to plan this letter blagging carefully. I bunged the bike in the car and drove to just outside Juniper Hill near Brackley, Northamptonshire and planned to get in J, K L, M, N, according to my planning the ride was going to be about 30 miles, which quite frankly in my present state of cycling attitude did not really appeal, but I knuckled down and got on with.

May I present to you today's sign posts.

Famous for being the birthplace of Flora Thompson

In 1926 Hubert Budgett founded the polo club here.

When I was planning the ride I could not see the sign on Google Street View, so wasn't sure if I was going to get 'L' today. I was pleased to see it otherwise it would have been another 6 miles to get 'L'. This must be the biggest sign for the smallest place I've been to so far.

There's a Manor and Castle here somewhere.

Dirty sign so I tagged it innit.

From what I can see there is the square root of Feck All in Newton Morrell.

Over half way through the challenge.

 

[rugby bloke]

My nearest J is over 37 miles way, I don't have the luxury of spending all day in the saddle so I had to plan this letter blagging carefully. I bunged the bike in the car and drove to just outside Juniper Hill near Brackley, Northamptonshire and planned to get in J, K L, M, N, according to my planning the ride was going to be about 30 miles, which quite frankly in my present state of cycling attitude did not really appeal, but I knuckled down and got on with.

May I present to you today's sign posts.

View attachment 452050

Famous for being the birthplace of Flora Thompson

View attachment 452051
In 1926 Hubert Budgett founded the polo club here.

View attachment 452052
When I was planning the ride I could not see the sign on Google Street View, so wasn't sure if I was going to get 'L' today. I was pleased to see it otherwise it would have been another 6 miles to get 'L'. This must be the biggest sign for the smallest place I've been to so far.

View attachment 452053
There's a Manor and Castle here somewhere.
View attachment 452054

Dirty sign so I tagged it innit.

View attachment 452055

From what I can see there is the square root of Feck All in Newton Morrell.

Over half way through the challenge.

That's a decent haul, nice ride.

 

[biggs682]

Just bagged an M as in Mears Ashby

Anybody want to take a stab and tell me what one of my bike's i was using ?

 

[burntoutbanger]

Just bagged an M as in Mears Ashby

Anybody want to take a stab and tell me what one of my bike's i was using ?

The black one?

 

[Aravis]

Having been off the bike with then virus since before this challenge started, I did my best to catch up today with a 200km DiY Audax, the route planned to pick off as many letters as possible. This may or may not have been sensible, but I'm here talking about it...

My standard gateway to the Cotswolds, which I've passed through many times. And I still don't know how to pronounce it:

The next village is a C, but a loop to the south took me to a place I'd never heard of. a mile or so west of Tetbury. The roads that took me there aren't encouraging me to return:

Looping back took me to the familiar C:

Again leaving the routes I know took me here, and this is a keeper:

I found a good route through Cirencester back to lands I know well:

There were two choice for F. Fairford seems to have had it's signs replace very recently, and the new ones are extremely pretentious. I took a photo as insurance, but when I arrived at the other choice there was no contest:

My route now headed for Bourton on the Water, through two good Gs next to each other. At the first, Great Barrington, there was a group loitering around the sign which might've been awkward had there not been an alternative:

Over the Cotswold ridge to Toddington, Hs proved remarkably sparse, but I found this one on the edge of Bredon Hill which help to make the route the required length:

Apart from increasing doubt that I'd get there before dark, no such problem with I, this one being on the northern edge of Gloucester:

And there it ends for the time being. Neither J nor V presents a problem apart from the need to ride up steep hills, but Z is 70 miles away. A few days ago when my wife spotted me googling "Zeals", she instantly asked if I was looking at cycling from A to Z. She plainly knows me very well.

 

[Shadow]

May I present to you today's sign posts.

View attachment 452054

Dirty sign so I tagged it innit.

Looking at the state of the road In Middleton, I'm not surprised the council would be bothering to keep the signs clean!!!

 

[Oldfentiger]

Having been off the bike with then virus since before this challenge started, I did my best to catch up today with a 200km DiY Audax, the route planned to pick off as many letters as possible. This may or may not have been sensible, but I'm here talking about it...

My standard gateway to the Cotswolds, which I've passed through many times. And I still don't know how to pronounce it:

View attachment 452067

The next village is a C, but a loop to the south took me to a place I'd never heard of. a mile or so west of Tetbury. The roads that took me there aren't encouraging me to return:

View attachment 452068

Looping back took me to the familiar C:

View attachment 452069

Again leaving the routes I know took me here, and this is a keeper:

View attachment 452070

I found a good route through Cirencester back to lands I know well:

View attachment 452071

There were two choice for F. Fairford seems to have had it's signs replace very recently, and the new ones are extremely pretentious. I took a photo as insurance, but when I arrived at the other choice there was no contest:

View attachment 452072

My route now headed for Bourton on the Water, through two good Gs next to each other. At the first, Great Barrington, there was a group loitering around the sign which might've been awkward had there not been an alternative:

View attachment 452074

Over the Cotswold ridge to Toddington, Hs proved remarkably sparse, but I found this one on the edge of Bredon Hill which help to make the route the required length:

View attachment 452075

Apart from increasing doubt that I'd get there before dark, no such problem with I, this one being on the northern edge of Gloucester:

View attachment 452076

And there it ends for the time being. Neither J nor V presents a problem apart from the need to ride up steep hills, but Z is 70 miles away. A few days ago when my wife spotted me googling "Zeals", she instantly asked if I was looking at cycling from A to Z. She plainly knows me very well.

Epic!!