My ride today included a trip to get a pic for the lost cycle path thread, a visit to the chemist, a park, and it finished with some local history.
Here's the 'lost' path.
Next on the list is Barnes Park, a traditional Victorian town park complete with bandstand.
There a path up to the tree line, quite steep over a short distance, so it's a job for the granny ring on the push bike.
Personal King of the Mountain points bagged, it's time to nip down to the chemist.
Better lock the bike to the railings, even though I will only be in there a minute or two.
Now for the history lesson.
This is a typical north east back lane.
The wooden shutters are where the coal used to be delivered from a horse and cart - the height is so the sacks could be emptied directly off the back of the cart.
The new bricks at the left of the pic would also have been a wooden shutter, but this time for the waste from the outside toilet to be emptied.
We have running water up here now and all sorts, but a mate's first house bought in the 1990s still had a working outside toilet, although by that time it had been plumbed into the sewer in the lane.
Most of the back yard walls have now been rebuilt with garage doors, as mine has.
The last pic also relates to back lane services.
On some corners you will see small pyramids of concrete.
These were to enable the coal cart to make the sharp turn by pivoting the nearside wheel against the corner.
The concrete stopped the wheel from snagging and damaging the corners of the bricks.
Who would have thought walls - and stretches of 1930s paths - could be so interesting?