Description

 To many cyclists the mention of gates conjures up visions of rough-stuff, for there are few tracks along which one has not a gate or two to open. The gate is usually open sesame" to the freedom of the hills. In the halcyon days between the two world wars, many unfenced hill roads had gates, often placed at frequent intervals wherever a boundary wall crossed the road and sometimes on the blind side of a sharp bend. Many of them bore the legend "Shut this Gate and Use Cooper’s Sheep Dip". We used to think that the people who had to be told to shut the gate were not the sort who would use sheep dip.