Category: Steeple Bumpstead

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Essex Ridgewell Steeple Bumpstead

Winding roads, curved walls

Keith’s route – from Steeple Bumpstead to Glemsford and back – provided what was possibly our most traffic-free ride of the year. Coupled with a bumper turnout of sixteen Windmillers* it made for a most enjoyable Thursday morning’s outing.

Pausing for a breather beside the duck pond at Belchamp Walter

Setting off from the Fox & Hounds, the outbound ride took us through many a fine north Essex village, and none finer than Great Yeldham, famed for its Great Oak – which is recorded in The Domesday Book – and its crinkle crankle wall. “What’s that?“, I hear you say.

The crinkle crankle wall at Great Yeldham

These walls mostly date back to the days of the brick tax (1784 to 1850) when the government levied a duty of half a crown – about £24 in today’s money – per 1000 bricks to help fund the American War of Independence. No sooner was the tax introduced than canny builders found ways to minimise its impact. Some just used bigger bricks and some opted to build walls crinkle-crankle style. These curved structures provided stability and required just one layer of bricks rather than the usual two, doing away altogether with the need for buttressing. Not only were the walls economical to build but the curves provided shelter and retained warmth for the growing of fruit trees.

The tax was eventually abolished in 1850 leading to a boom in the brick industry (and a return to the building of straighter walls!)

Some seventeen miles after setting off we crossed the River Stour into Suffolk and pulled in at the excellent Willow Tree Farm Café, just outside Glemsford.

Refreshed and back on the bikes we re-traced our way over the Stour and back into Essex for the return leg via Belchamp St Paul, Ridgewell and Birdbrook – and it was somewhere along here that we encountered that scourge of autumnal outings – the tractor and hedge flail.

There’s many a puncture from thorny hedge flailings

Sure enough, and just a few miles short of the pub, MartinB pulled up with a puncture, a long thorn protruding from his tyre. Seeing it would be the quickest way for us all getting back in time for lunch, Rod dashed the remaining few miles to the pub, got the car and retrieved both Martin and machine. Well done, Rod!

We subsequently learned Martin wasn’t the only one to suffer a puncture; a similar fate had befallen Alan, though his caused by glass and thankfully mended en route.

Returning to the Fox & Hounds we were delighted to find MartinW waiting there for us and together we enjoyed a beer or two and a good lunch.

Al fresco aperitifs at the Fox & Hounds

Our thanks go to Keith for planning and leading an excellent morning’s ride.

33 miles anticlockwise from Steeple Bumpstead

* The turnout was: Alan, Brian, Deborah, Geoff, Graham, Howard, Jenni, Keith, Ken, MartinB, Maurice, Paul, Rach, Rod, Simon and Victor.

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Steeple Bumpstead Suffolk

Coffee & cake at Clare

We like the Fox & Hounds at Steeple Bumpstead, not least because Landlady Kate provides coffee and biscuits while we wait for Deborah, who generally arrives just as we are draining our cups.

Refreshed and ready to go, twelve Windmillers attempt to form two equal sized pelotons in conformance with government guidelines*. Only it never quite works out, Maurice heading out with eight riders while Brian musters just four. Maybe some can’t count? Maybe – quite understandably – others fear getting lost with Brian? Or maybe it’s just our Keystone Cops-like inability to get organised. Who knows.

Whatever the reason, all twelve somehow found their way to Clare where we enjoyed some excellent coffee and cake at Platform One, the café in the long-disused railway station.

From Clare we made short work of the return trip to Steeple Bumpstead where Landlady Kate served up a hearty lunch washed down with a restorative ale.

For the record, this week’s riders were: Maurice, Howard, Roger, Deborah, Jenni, Alan, Victor, Graham, Geoff, Charles, Lawrence and Brian – and Ken joined us for lunch.

At Clare station; a map of the long lost Stour Valley line
35 miles clockwise from Steeple Bumpstead

Thanks, Maurice, for organising another terrific outing.

*As of Thursday, 27 August 2020, Cycling UK’s guidance is that groups of up to fifteen can ride provided they take reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Read more.

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Steeple Bumpstead

Cowsheds and Lychgates

Thursday morning in Steeple Bumpstead and we were hopeful of a fine morning’s cycling ahead of the thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. But thunder was already heard as we unloaded the bikes and rain followed shortly after. There was nothing for it but to retire to the Fox & Hounds for an early coffee.

Gathering at Steeple Bumpstead

The worst of the downpour passed and we ventured out on the wet roads; the first group – Maurice in the lead followed by Lawrence, Howard, Roger and Simon – followed some five minutes later by the second group comprising Brian, Deborah, Geoff, Graham and Mike.

We had gone barely three miles when the rain came down again, only this time in torrents. Soon the road was awash and we could barely see where we were going. In Stambourne, Maurice’s group sought shelter under the church lych-gate. Old English for corpse-gate, this was the sheltered meeting place where a funeral party would gather and where the priest would receive the shroud-wrapped body and commence the funeral rites.

What better port in a storm for five sodden Windmillers?

Keeping body and soul together under the lych-gate in Stambourne . . .
. . . while it rained stair-rods. Note the outdoor sleeping arrangements peculiar to this part of Suffolk

Meanwhile, Brian’s group, caught out by the deluge on a quiet lane, sought shelter in a cowshed. The cows didn’t seem to mind and neither did the farmer who, turning up to unblock a storm drain and initially startled by the sight of sodden cyclists in her barn, said we were very welcome – but we weren’t to milk the cows.

Cosy in the cowshed

Half an hour later the rain had stopped and we headed out again, skirting the deeper puddles. Ten miles down the road, the sun was shining and we were almost dry again.

Mike, joining us for the first time, was on a fixie – a great way to keep fit as you have to go all out and attack every hill; either that or get off and push, which doesn’t look cool. Mike crested every hill with ease; we were impressed.

Given all the delays, there was no time for our usual coffee stop in Finchingfield as we were expected back at the Fox & Hounds for lunch. Instead we sailed on through the picturesque village and out past the windmill, heading for Cornish Hall End and the final leg back to Steeple Bumpstead.

Enjoying a beer at the pub, we were glad to report no punctures, no broken chains, no e-bike breakdowns, no disputing the highway code with wayward drivers – and nobody had fallen off. A triumph!

Thanks, Maurice for another great outing – and a belated Happy Birthday to Roger, who bought the beers.

28 miles clockwise from Steeple Bumpstead