Rsf NP&SP Hooton Pagnell Sunday 7April 2019

We met at the Buttercross for a 10.0am start, but were delayed as Grayham’s back tyre was coming off the rim. However it takes more than that to upset an NP&SP rider and ten minutes later we were all awheel. We passed through Hickleton but this time we did not stop at the lovely early church which would have looked at home in a Cotswolds’ village. Unlike the Lancashire coalfield parts of  the former South Yorkshire coalfield are replete with ancient and remarkably beautiful settlements. It is difficult to imagine that this area was once one of the most polluted environments of which only the pit villages remain as a reminder. The area is evocatively described in the autobiographical novel “The Valley” by Richard Benson. Leaving Hickleton we rode along a wooded track followed by a fast descent on road to the River Dearne and the Trans Pennine Trail. We followed the Trail past Mexborough to enter the canalised River Don Gorge at Conisbrough. Below Sprotbrough we stopped for a wayside coffee and after passing under the A1M we took the Doncaster Greenway to Bentley where we stopped for lunch at the eponymous Bentley Brothers Cafe - cheap and wholesome. Sated we returned to the TPT to follow a mixture of tracks and lanes to the “Stop Look & Listen” crossing of the railway line from Wakefield  to Scunthorpe. After emerging from Owston Wood we left the TPT and continued on quiet lanes until we had to cross the busy A19 and ride on through Burghwallis to Skellow where the only way to cross the A1M was to climb via a high footbridge over the motorway. More lanes and on to Hampole for the only climb of the day back to Hooton Pagnell. It had been a dry but much cooler day than the previous one and the first drops of rain arrived as we entered the village.

John kemp