Violets in December ?

Indeed. The notoriously wet Violets lane. Welcome to the Windmill rides, John.

Thursday’s ride started in Brent Pelham, possibly the most central venue possible for the Windmill club.

The Brent Pelham parish church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the 14th century. It contains a black marble tomb slab from 13th century, upon which the name of legendary local dragon-slayer Piers Shonks and a date of 1086 has been added. Near St Mary’s church are ancient stocks which could accommodate up to three people. A derelict windmill also survives in the village. More on derelict windmillers later. Of more immediate interest was the village pub, the Black Horse, from which our ride started.

It had rained overnight; tractors and lorries loaded with sugar beet had added a layer of mud to the already wet leaf covered lanes. Thankfully the rain had stopped, leaving just grey skies and a surprisingly brisk south easterly wind.

..And so Martin’s route set us off towards the notoriously wet Violets lane. Mercifully, the route avoided the submerged sections and instead headed up the concrete farm track to Whitebarns Lane (a muddy farm track) to Furneux Pelham. From here more conventional (muddy) roads took us through the bypassed Little Hadham, the delightfully leafy Wellpond green and Standon.

Across the far side of Ermine street we finally pitched up at Westhill Golf Club for coffee (noting the wind swept golfers as we dived for the shelter of the club house).

After a leisurely coffee and tea cakes (‘leisurely’ on account of the maximum delivery rate of a single coffee machine), Alan cracked the proverbial whip and we were back on the (muddy) roads towards Brent Pelham via Buntingford, Alpacas, Red Kites aplenty and Anstey. Just outside Brent Pelham, we passed the Royal Observer Corps observer post, now in a state of disrepair.

Back at the Black Horse, a respectable Christmas Lunch party was already under way. Sensibly, we were accommodated by a fire at completely the other end of the pub, for a lovely lunch and beer. Another great ride, muddy, breezy but mercifully rainless, not too cold and incident free – thankyou Martin

Riders were: John, Debs, Martin W, Alan, Graham, Rod, Simon, Paul, Nigel, Martin B (looking slightly unacclimatised since having just arrived back from South Africa)