The weather this evening was warm, with a light breeze - perfect cycling weather. Despite the favourable conditions, and the promise of a short ride, only 3 of us met at the Fox Inn: Janet, Chris,  and myself .

I decided to keep the ride as off-road as possible, so we headed out through Felpham churchyard, then the Community College grounds, up to the golf club and the Roundle Estate where we took a back alley to Hoe Lane at Flansham. From there it was off road all the way as we tok the route of the proposed cycle path across the fields and over the River Rife to Barnham Church. The route has clearly been subject to some preliminary works as the footpaths have been diverted, streams culverted, and vegetation recently trimmed back. However although rideable throughout, there is still an awful lot to do and an all-weather surface would make this a really excellent route, passing as it does through some very unspoilt countryside.

As we approached Barnham, we stopped to inspect the remains of Hollinsworth swing bridge across the abandoned Portsmouth-Arundel canal at Church Lane, we then diverted 300 yards or so to Barnham Court farm, to inspect the unearthed  remains of Stewart Bridge. Both these iron swing bridges were forged in 1820, but fell out of use after the canal became impassable in c.1856, and were buried where they collapsed. Archeological digs by the canal society in 2003 unearthed this well preserved ironmongery.

From here it was a short sprint to the Murrell Arms, where we met the Chichester contingent (both of them), also just arriving.

The return trip stuck rigidly to tarmac, running via Yapton (where Chris left us for Littlehampton), and Middleton.  The entire Chichester group decided to ride with us all the way back to Felpham, and their influence led to some lively running, indeed I arrived home before dark.

The modest mileage for the evening was 12.

Graham

Posted by RideLeader at 23:27 BST

Updated: Sunday, 10 June 2007 00:04 BST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink