Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail – and more!

May – June, 2003

We chose to spend our holiday cycling the Trans Pennine Trail for three main reasons:

At the planning stage we sent away for the pack containing the three maps covering the TPT and a very handy little book, this being the official visitor guide and accommodation list (£19.75 including p&p from the TPT Office, Barnsley Metropolitan Council, Kendray Street, Barnsley S70 2TN). All the B&B accommodation we used came from this book. In addition, as back-up, I obtained all the relevant OS maps and highlighted the route on them. This turned out to be a very wise thing to do, necessary of course to find some of our accommodation addresses which were not directly on the route.

The first indication of how hard the TPT would be came when two cyclists got on our train at Manchester and sat with us in the cycle compartment. They were returning home to the Wirral after cycling the route from its start at Southport. They informed us that about 80% of it was off-road, on disused railway lines, bridleways and canal / river towpaths. One of the cyclists had a splendid Giant bike with suspension, but the other was suffering from a sore neck after only 4 days on the Trail. The second indication was the weather. We’d already had several days of very heavy storms and at that time there was no prospect of any improvement.

Having spent an enjoyable time at Liverpool youth hostel on our previous visit we stayed there again, for three nights. We had our own en suite room, with cooking facilities if we wanted to do our own meals, but in fact excellent meals were served in the restaurant downstairs. Breakfast was included in the overnight charge, while three course evening meals were priced at £5.10 so very economical. The only snag about our room was that it was in the front of the building, overlooking a main dual carriageway, therefore very noisy.

The YH is also very conveniently placed within walking distance of the Waterfront and the Albert Dock. We walked out that first evening in the sun. We even saw a large group of wet-suited swimmers pounding up and down the Albert Dock, quite a distance.

The sun was out next morning too when we took the Metro (so cheap and convenient) to Southport to see the start of the Trail, with its tall column with the TPT logo on top, its fish sculpture and its comprehensive information boards. None of the locals could fail to know about the Trail. One thing that helped enormously on our ride was that it was generally well signed with large blue signs, quite conspicuous across a road junction for example. Also, when we were in doubt, all the locals we asked knew about the Trail and could direct us – more than can be said about the majority of Norwich citizens and Route 1 of the NCN which passes through it.

On our second day in Liverpool we took our bikes across on the ferry, hoping to repeat the lovely ride around the coastline of the Wirral (NCN Route 56) which we’d done in November. But by the time we arrived there it was pouring with rain so we spent time only at the Historic Warships museum, most interesting with several ships one could explore. Our YHA cards gave us the bonus of half-price admission.

On our third day we were ready to start our long ride, described in diary form below:

Saturday, 17 May

On leaving the YH we set off for the nearest point of the route ‘loop’ that we could see marked on the map – the Merseyside Cycling Campaign’s cycle map of Liverpool, given out in the pre-conference pack in November proved invaluable here. Following the waymarked route – through two parks and zigzagging through the back streets – eventually we ascended a bank onto the TPT proper, the Liverpool Loop Line disused railway. As we got there, there were two cyclists just finishing off mending a puncture. ‘Hope you’ve got plenty of patches’, they called out to us as they rode off. Oh dear, this didn’t sound very encouraging.

Shortly we passed the Jaguar motor works at Halewood, then found a pub lunch in Hale. Our route continued along the Mersey, through Pickering’s Pasture Country Park and Nature Reserve. Just beyond we found the most amazing contraption to negotiate a steep hill – virtually a cliff face. This was a zigzag of four flights each of eleven wide steps. Easy enough to manage except that each flight actually had a pinch point half way up it.

We’d already noted that the local authority in this part of the country seemed very keen on locating pinch points at every possible excuse along the way. To make matters worse for us touring cyclists with wide, heavy loads (2 panniers each fore and aft) they were very narrow pinch points, some with swing gates inside a railed area, and with all the rain we were having, most were ankle deep in water. In fact, on that first day we negotiated 29 pinch points, most of which we had to struggle with, plus the four on the steps. No wonder we arrived at our night’s destination pretty exhausted.

Beyond the Runcorn – Widnes Mersey Bridge, the shape of which reminded me of a looper caterpillar, we got onto the towpath of St Helen’s Canal, then the Manchester Ship Canal, very wide and impressive. Then we were on another disused railway line to our farmhouse B&B at Little Bollington on the western outskirts of Altrincham. We tried to find farms for accommodation as they tend to be sympathetic and helpful to cyclists arriving wet through and with muddy feet. Although that is the state we arrived in here, we were not offered any drying facilities (even youth hostels are more helpful in this respect). However, we had time to dry out for we were here two nights. 

Mileage: 36 Time on the move: 5 hours Average speed: 7.2mph Maximum speed: 20mph Arrival time: 7.30pm

Route: mainly rough track, wet and muddy. Ride continually interrupted by far too narrow pinch points. Arrived pretty exhausted.

Sunday, 18 May

We had a day off from cycling as we wanted to go to Salford Quays to the Lowry art gallery. First our hosts at the farm arranged for a taxi to take us to Altrincham station. After struggling to sort out how to get tickets from the machine, we took the Metro train signed ‘Piccadilly’. We had to change at Cornbrook for an ‘Eccles’ train.

The trains are only two coaches long, hinged rather like those on the Docklands Light Railway in London. They rattled along, had great acceleration but quite a pronounced yawing movement. We were travelling along on a high embankment on the Eccles train when it suddenly turned a bend, crossed a canal and did a sharp descent past the windows of some buildings to land up in the road among motor vehicles – it had metamorphosed into a tram! What an odd experience, one which for me was a repeat of something similar in Chur, Switzerland. We got off at Salford Quays, at a crossroads.

Salford Quays was a revelation! Former docks joined up to the Manchester Ship Canal, bridges, pedestrian areas, wonderful buildings. We walked along to The Lowry as it’s called, where we spent a couple of hours looking at the man’s wonderful paintings and drawings, many of them everyday scenes of people, dogs (usually a dog featured, occasionally a cat) and industry. We had coffee at the gallery, then walked some more, over a pedestrian / cycle bridge, to discover the magnificent Imperial War Museum North.

The first thing we did here, since it was just by the entrance, was to ascend in the lift to the viewing platform where we had fine views of the city. Down in the main museum we had periodic projection of three different presentations, not in any special room but all around on all the walls. One could only look about one in wonder, also at the displays which dealt mainly with the two world wars. Wonderful museums with plenty of people visiting. After a meal at the War Museum we walked back to catch the Metro, while looking about us in wonder at all the marvellous buildings and precincts. Never seen anything like it before! We returned to the farm B&B at Little Bollington by the same way as our outward journey. 

Monday, 19 May

It was time to resume our ride. It turned out to be a very hard day, what with rough track, very narrow pinch points – 30 of them, one up on our previous day’s ride – at some of which we had to remove panniers to get through, ankle deep water at such points, mud deep enough to drown in at motorway underpasses, carpets of broken glass under bridges, and a high, very permanent looking metal fence blocking our way. We could see the path continuing on the other side of the fence but the owners of the business bordering it evidently did not like the idea of cyclists passing at the back of its premises. The only way out was up a narrow alleyway full of litter and water. It turned out to be Parcelforce, in the Stockport area. I wonder if the authorities know about this blockage? Added to all this was the rain, of course – very heavy showers – plus the fact that the day’s ride turned out to be almost twice as far as we’d calculated from the map (29 instead of 15 miles).

Today’s ride seemed to have little to commend it, passing under numerous motorways and bridges, much of the time following the course of the River Mersey through a corridor of undeveloped land through Greater Manchester. We left the Trail to find our B&B, up a very steep and busy road to Werneth Low, south of Hyde. This was another farmhouse, but we had a very small room in which to dry our, once again, wringing wet clothes and baggage. The rather odd farmer did however take my wet jacket and mitts, returning them dry the next morning. Another redeeming factor was the lovely evening meal served up, as requested. We sat with a charming couple of American women, mother and daughter, for this meal and next morning’s breakfast. There were also numerous dogs and cats about, including two beautiful white pedigree dogs which had won awards at Crufts. 

Mileage: 28.57 Time on the move: 5 hours Average speed: 5.8mph

Maximum speed: 20mph Time of arrival: 7.15pm

Route and signage: many problems, detailed above. Signage generally good but inadequate thns’ officer for Safer and Healthier Journeys to School, had previously sent us a cycle map of the city on which he’d marked some notable cycle-friendly features he thought we should see. So our first sortie was to look at the new ‘magic roundabout’, a benchmarking scheme to improve cyclist safety and ease of passage at a major road roundabout. We stood watching for some minutes, seeing how the division of cycle lanes worked for the different junctions. We wondered if it was safer than previously and were informed later that indeed the accident rate had decreased since the scheme was installed. (Maybe we could do with similar on Norwich’s ring road roundabouts.)

Next we went to see the new Millennium cycle / pedestrian bridge over the river, which was very impressive. Then we called on Paul, Anna and family for coffee, as arranged. While we were with them Paul marked on the map some shops we needed, and soon we were off, to buy food and, in my case, new shoes. With all the rough walking we’d done on this trip I’d worn out my trainers, with a hole in the heel of one which meant that with all the water we’d had I had permanently wet feet. So it was into JJB for a new pair, leaving my old ones with them to be discarded. How lovely to have nice dry feet again, though by now the weather had improved somewhat.

So we spent the day mooching about the city, looking and taking photos. On our return to the YH we had an evening meal in the restaurant, then met John and Hilary Whitlam, like us members of the former Norwich YHA Local Group, just coming out of one of the other family rooms. So we exchanged news of other members and their activities. 

Bank Holiday Monday, 26 May

We had breakfast with John and Hilary in the dining room overlooking the bird garden. On leaving the YH we took Route 65, part of the TPT, along the river, back the way we had come. There were many more cyclists on the route this time, including a group possibly 30 strong on the riverside path in York. The York – Selby railway path was also much busier. In the Selby area we had problems finding a pub lunch, so stopped at a fish and chip shop on the outskirts of town, eating our meal standing on the pavement. While there we were joined by a group of cyclists arriving intermittently. They were from London on a tour doing 150 miles per day, with a back-up vehicle carrying all their baggage. Their bikes had very narrow tyres – racing rather than touring ones.

We didn’t go through Selby this time but continued along the north bank of the River Ouse. As we passed through the village of Hemingbrough we saw there was an event on at the church. Never ones to look a gift horse cup of tea in the mouth, we stopped to investigate. It was a craft fair and plant sale in aid of church funds. There were even helicopter flights @ £10 for 20 minutes. We took it in turns to go into the church to see what was there and have tea and lovely pieces of lemon cake. I went in first. Seeing a selection of Whitby jet earrings on a stall and taking a while to choose a pair (I’d forgotten to take any on holiday with us), I suggested to the inquisitive elderly husband of the stall holder that he go outside and chat with Bob about his desires to get back on a bike (after many years) and go off on a tour like ours. I wonder if he ever did follow our example? We come across many aspiring returnees to cycling in their later years.

We found our next B&B, the Minster View Hotel, right opposite the church (not the minster) in Howden. Our room was directly facing it, very picturesque but rather disturbing as the church clock sounded off every 15 minutes throughout the day and night. Didn’t notice it though – we generally slept very well on this trip. 

Mileage: 28 Time on the move: 3.5hrs Average speed: 8mph Maximum speed: 16mph Time of arrival: 4.25pm

Tuesday, 27 May

The ‘hotel’ was in fact an inn, and considerably more tatty than our previous billets. However, its status was considerably enhanced by the excellent breakfast we were served. There was no one else in the building but the cook, an 80-year-old local lady who was the only one available at such an early hour to feed us and take our payment. We wondered how they’d manage when she decided to retire.

We had an easy ride from Howden to North Ferriby. The weather was much improved and the going good. We met two separate couples of touring cyclists, loaded up with panniers like us – the first we’d met since Liverpool. We called out to them, but they didn’t want to talk to us! I wondered if they’d just come off the ferry at Hull and their English was not up to having conversations. We had an excellent lunch at the Triton pub at Brantingham – recommended! The last section of our route was alongside the A63, very noisy. We found our B&B, an excellent place with plenty of hot water. We had baths and did washing, which the hot night dried off well. The hostess, Margaret, told us she was a graduate of the UEA and once worked for May and Baker, Norwich. 

Mileage: 23 Time on the move: 2hrs 45mins Average speed: 8mph Maximum speed: 24mph Time of arrival: 3.15pm

Wednesday, 28 May (our wedding anniversary)

We started off the day with a puncture, the first one of the tour. When Bob went to get the bikes out of the garage my front tyre was flat. He quickly changed the inner tube – the pinhole puncture to be mended at our next B&B.

Back on the TPT, one and a half miles into our day’s ride, we came across a blockage, two strongly padlocked gates and a stile. Admittedly we were warned – Restrictive barrier, cycles must be lifted – printed on the route map. But why? Why not leave the smaller (pedestrian) gate unlocked, especially as there were no other barriers preventing motorcycles (if that’s what they were afraid of) from entering this stretch of path from either end? Pedestrians of course could climb over the stile, and this is what we had to do with our bikes, once we’d removed all eight pannier bags and lifted them over. This is another example we came across of anti-cyclist prejudice; others were notices saying, Cyclists give way to pedestrians, Cyclists give way to horses, Cyclists give way to farm vehicles, and of course cyclists have to give way to motor vehicles everywhere. So who has to give way to cyclists? Maybe this is one reason why it is so difficult to get peop