Sausages all the way down

Braughing is internationally famous in Hertfordshire and Essex for its Sausages. In 1954 Douglas White and his wife Anna made their first Braughing Sausages which proved to be instantly popular. The claim is that the recipe has remained the same since then and that the sausages are still made using traditional methods – albeit not now in Braughing, but Newmarket two counties away. On average 30,000 Braughing branded sausages are sold each week.

Its not sausages all the way down, though. Braughing’s history dates back to the Iron age – it was the site of the largest ‘Celtic’ mint discovered in Europe. There were also significant Roman and Anglo Saxon settlements here.

There used to be a station on the Great Eastern Railway Buntingford branch, which closed in 1964. In 1953, the station featured in the comedy film ‘Happy Ever After’ with the late David Niven and George Cole. The site of the station was just visible from our ride and appears now to be part of a full size hobby train set. Also sadly lost to the village, only a couple of years ago, is the delightful H & N Jones Grocers and Post Office.

Happily the village still supports the grade 1 listed church of St Mary and no fewer than three pubs. One of these pubs is a popular club haunt, The Golden Fleece, and it was from here that 11 riders gathered for today’s ride. Maurice’s route was an old favourite taking in quiet Hertfordshire lanes (filthy and muddy after heavy overnight rain) and the multi use tow path alongside the River Lea Navigation canal between Hertford and Ware. Or at least that was the plan. Maurice’s group decided to miss a section of the path to avoid the puddles, which left Deborah (dallying to watch the abundant bird life at Amwell Nature reserve) temporarily stranded without a group. No crisis in the end, though, and all were reunited at Ware Cafe for mid ride refreshments, taken in a brief bout of warm sunshine.

We have another puncture prize contender ! Actually, given the state of the roads, only one puncture was not bad going but that was no consolation to Rach, who’s puncture it was. Why is it that apparently premium inner tubes aren’t supplied with the valve cores firmly locked in place ? Even if they deign to stay in place when the bike pump is disconnected (they often don’t), they can work slightly loose on the road causing a slow loss of pressure. Such was Rach’s experience for most of the ride. Luckily Tom managed to flag down someone with some pliers to enable a working fix to be made which lasted nearly, but not quite, back to the pub. TOP TIP: If you have spare inner tubes featuring removable valve cores, tighten the cores up with some long nosed pliers before you need to use them.

All back at the pub having miraculously dodged the heavy showers, it was sausage baguettes (Braughing sausages, naturally) for many of the riders.

And, for the record, the riders were: Deborah, Rach, Jennie, Maurice, Simon, Roger, Geoff, Graham, Martin II, Tom and Nigel.