FNRttC The Fridays tour 2014
- Thread starter mmmmartin
- Start date
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ianmac62
Guru
- Location
- Northampton
Hedges, eh? Of course there's a Northamptonshire view of hedges, perhaps a tale of two Charlies.
On the one hand the anti-royalist Sulby Hedges, decisive in the Battle of Naseby. Fairfax, commanding the parliamentary army, had rushed before dawn from Northampton to secure the look-out post - the steeple of Naseby chuch - so that he could view Rupert's royalist army approaching from Leicester. Here's the view today, just north of the church and looking north towards Market Harborough and Leicester.
But in the seventeenth century the small hedges (and the trees) would not have been there. Instead, on the left, running north-south, was one high and thick set of hedges through the Hundred of Sulby. These were the Sulby hedges.
Fairfax placed his cavalry, under Cromwell, on the left. In turn, Cromwell placed some of his men - a troop of horse under John Okey - on the extreme left on the other side of the hedges. When Rupert attacked, the first shots in the battle came from Okey's men through the hedges. Confusion followed and when the rest of Cromwell's cavalry - the Ironsides - counter-attacked, Rupert's morning was over. Shortly afterwards, King Charles was captured and held at nearby Holdenby House.
Earlier this year, however, I learned that another Charles is getting his own back on this landscape. Returning from a New Year's Cyclists Lunch in the Sibbertoft Reading Room (a village just north of Naseby), we spotted some new hedge laying on the boundary of the Cottesbrooke estate.
One of my oldest friends, John, lept from his bike to give us an ex-tempore lecture on hedge laying. This hedge, he told us, was typical of the “South Midlands style” and was clearly going to be “bullock-proof”. (If you enter hedge-laying competitions, it's no use turning up to a Lake District competition - where South Midlands style would stick out like a sore thumb against all the Cumberland style hedges.) We could easily see its advantages over an adjacent hedge which had merely been strummed. How did John know? He was teaching himself hedge-laying to improve the boundaries of his property. Out cycling a week later, I noted his craftsmanship:
This is where his boundary runs along the A5099 at Chapel Brampton on the old Northampton-to-Leicester road (the Welford road for followers of rugby) - along which many of the parliamentary army would have marched in 1645. Four months later and John had also laid a fence along his boundary with neighbouring farm land:
and this detail shows that he too is becoming a "bullock-proof" hedger:
He told me that, even with a day-labourer he has employed, he is very slow and therefore not yet a craftsman. However, hedge laying only needs to be done every fifteen years and, as he is seventy, he doesn't plan on doing it again! How does this relate to Prince Charles?
Well, craftsmen-hedgers are rarer than piano-tuners and thatchers. So John has been teaching himself from videos. And the sponsor / patron of the best hedge-laying videos? Prince Charles.
BTW, I've had a lengthy phone conversation today with mmmmmartin and can confirm that I'll be the white-van-man for those of you riding from Saturday 14th June to Saturday 21st June 2014 following the draft outline in his comment above.
On the one hand the anti-royalist Sulby Hedges, decisive in the Battle of Naseby. Fairfax, commanding the parliamentary army, had rushed before dawn from Northampton to secure the look-out post - the steeple of Naseby chuch - so that he could view Rupert's royalist army approaching from Leicester. Here's the view today, just north of the church and looking north towards Market Harborough and Leicester.
But in the seventeenth century the small hedges (and the trees) would not have been there. Instead, on the left, running north-south, was one high and thick set of hedges through the Hundred of Sulby. These were the Sulby hedges.
Fairfax placed his cavalry, under Cromwell, on the left. In turn, Cromwell placed some of his men - a troop of horse under John Okey - on the extreme left on the other side of the hedges. When Rupert attacked, the first shots in the battle came from Okey's men through the hedges. Confusion followed and when the rest of Cromwell's cavalry - the Ironsides - counter-attacked, Rupert's morning was over. Shortly afterwards, King Charles was captured and held at nearby Holdenby House.
Earlier this year, however, I learned that another Charles is getting his own back on this landscape. Returning from a New Year's Cyclists Lunch in the Sibbertoft Reading Room (a village just north of Naseby), we spotted some new hedge laying on the boundary of the Cottesbrooke estate.
One of my oldest friends, John, lept from his bike to give us an ex-tempore lecture on hedge laying. This hedge, he told us, was typical of the “South Midlands style” and was clearly going to be “bullock-proof”. (If you enter hedge-laying competitions, it's no use turning up to a Lake District competition - where South Midlands style would stick out like a sore thumb against all the Cumberland style hedges.) We could easily see its advantages over an adjacent hedge which had merely been strummed. How did John know? He was teaching himself hedge-laying to improve the boundaries of his property. Out cycling a week later, I noted his craftsmanship:
This is where his boundary runs along the A5099 at Chapel Brampton on the old Northampton-to-Leicester road (the Welford road for followers of rugby) - along which many of the parliamentary army would have marched in 1645. Four months later and John had also laid a fence along his boundary with neighbouring farm land:
and this detail shows that he too is becoming a "bullock-proof" hedger:
He told me that, even with a day-labourer he has employed, he is very slow and therefore not yet a craftsman. However, hedge laying only needs to be done every fifteen years and, as he is seventy, he doesn't plan on doing it again! How does this relate to Prince Charles?
Well, craftsmen-hedgers are rarer than piano-tuners and thatchers. So John has been teaching himself from videos. And the sponsor / patron of the best hedge-laying videos? Prince Charles.
BTW, I've had a lengthy phone conversation today with mmmmmartin and can confirm that I'll be the white-van-man for those of you riding from Saturday 14th June to Saturday 21st June 2014 following the draft outline in his comment above.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hedge_funds2758154 said:
I think Mayfair is the district you want...
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
An idea has entered my head.
Could I ask you to post, reasonably quickly on here, as to whether you would want to go on from Bordeaux to the Med? At the moment I have Stu G, AKA Bob, Redfalo expressing interest.
As plans stand at the moment they will have to carry their own luggage.
How many others would do it if the luggage was in a van?
It Is about 450k and would probably involve taking two weeks away from work as opposed to the one week needed for the Caen to Bordeaux leg.
The return from the Med could be done nonstop in one simple trip with the European Bike Express, which will pick you and the bike up from Narbonne amd drop you at Dover, the M2 services near Maidstone, the Thurrock services on the M25 or places north on the way to Yorkshire. Tandems can easily be transported, as can recumbents. It has a huge trailer for the bikes. I have used the EBE and it is safe for the bike, simple, and frees you from worrying about ferry crossings, the middle of Paris, lugging the bike on and off French trains etc.
Well?
Could I ask you to post, reasonably quickly on here, as to whether you would want to go on from Bordeaux to the Med? At the moment I have Stu G, AKA Bob, Redfalo expressing interest.
As plans stand at the moment they will have to carry their own luggage.
How many others would do it if the luggage was in a van?
It Is about 450k and would probably involve taking two weeks away from work as opposed to the one week needed for the Caen to Bordeaux leg.
The return from the Med could be done nonstop in one simple trip with the European Bike Express, which will pick you and the bike up from Narbonne amd drop you at Dover, the M2 services near Maidstone, the Thurrock services on the M25 or places north on the way to Yorkshire. Tandems can easily be transported, as can recumbents. It has a huge trailer for the bikes. I have used the EBE and it is safe for the bike, simple, and frees you from worrying about ferry crossings, the middle of Paris, lugging the bike on and off French trains etc.
Well?
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Nor me.
I was assuming Mmmmartin that I would travel down to Bordeaux as a member of the gang and would be helping by not taking space for the return. Why, if I don't come back, do I have to carry all my stuff down? I'm not a strong rider and carrying a week's load is beyond me. This is an unexpected stopper! Why?
clivedb
Guru
- Location
- Milton Keynes
Not me, Martin. I am uncertain about the Caen-Bordeaux ride - do you need a commitment now to establish numbers? Or are we at the stage of making our own arrangements, as it will turn out to be an amazing coincidence that we find ourselves travelling at the same time in the same direction?
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
I think he meant down from Bordeaux to the Med.
Two more nos here (reluctantly) - I don't have the time off work.
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Stu G
SRW is correct. I meant as plans stand at the moment you would have to carry your own luggage on the Bordeaux to Med leg. (The van would carry your luggage from Caen to Bordeaux, obvs). My idea, possibly beautifully explained, possibly not, was that possibly, perhaps, maybe, the van would continue to the Med, carrying the luggage of you and others to the Med.
But - if that were to happen, how to get riders and bikes back from Bordeaux? Answer: £142 on the European Bike Express, get on in Bordeaux and be dropped in Dover, Thurrock or on the M25 or M1 in one of a number of places all the way to Yorkshire. No trains, no crossing Paris with luggage, no trains to Caen, no ferries, no Portsmouth hotels, no trains back from Portsmouth. One booking with one company.
Simpler and easier for everyone except StuAff who might want to go to Portsmouth.......
And for the Med group, there Is another European Bike Express route from the south of France back to the UK. Same price, too.
I suspect the simplicity of the EBE makes it a more attractive option as an easy return route for the Bordeaux-UK leg.
More research is needed, this is happening. I have lined up for tomorrow afternoon an exciting date with an Excel spreadsheet.....
SRW is correct. I meant as plans stand at the moment you would have to carry your own luggage on the Bordeaux to Med leg. (The van would carry your luggage from Caen to Bordeaux, obvs). My idea, possibly beautifully explained, possibly not, was that possibly, perhaps, maybe, the van would continue to the Med, carrying the luggage of you and others to the Med.
But - if that were to happen, how to get riders and bikes back from Bordeaux? Answer: £142 on the European Bike Express, get on in Bordeaux and be dropped in Dover, Thurrock or on the M25 or M1 in one of a number of places all the way to Yorkshire. No trains, no crossing Paris with luggage, no trains to Caen, no ferries, no Portsmouth hotels, no trains back from Portsmouth. One booking with one company.
Simpler and easier for everyone except StuAff who might want to go to Portsmouth.......
And for the Med group, there Is another European Bike Express route from the south of France back to the UK. Same price, too.
I suspect the simplicity of the EBE makes it a more attractive option as an easy return route for the Bordeaux-UK leg.
More research is needed, this is happening. I have lined up for tomorrow afternoon an exciting date with an Excel spreadsheet.....
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
FTFY.
Martin, you'll permit me a trace of bias here I hope, but surely the idea is to inconvenience as few people in the group as possible, and as little as possible? There was a plan, your plan, that did just that. The EBE might be a simpler option for some, but by no means all. Certainly not me, and I doubt I'm the only one. In my case, if there's no van to take my bike back, my options are:
1. The EBE with everyone else. And considerable extra expense and time lugging the bike back from Dover or London. Dover to Pompey is over 4 1/2 hours on the (far cheaper) not London routes.
2. Plane to Gatwick from Bordeaux. Rather faster yes, only £60 or so fare, but then there's baggage handler issues.... I have a CTC bike bag (the clear plastic sack), but I'd be wanting a bit more protection, I'm afraid. So that would be at least £300 for a decent case....
3. TGV/regional train to Caen, as per original plan but with a bike. If I can get bike spaces, if being the operative word, not too bad. If not, only Chutney will do and I'll have to bag it for the trains. And either taxi between stations or bag, ride (eek) and bag again. And hours on my own. Fare beween Bordeaux and Caen is as low as £31, by the way. The EBE is not going to be quicker than the train, even when you add a ferry in.
Stick with plan A please, it works for the majority. Those who want to go on to the Med have multiple options to get back anyway.
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