The Next Ride

Sunday 12 June 2016: From THE LEVEL via FALMER, WOODINGDEAN to ROTTINGDEAN and back to BRIGHTON PIER

DISTANCE – 13miles       DURATION – 3-4hrs including lunch

Start: 10.30 at the Velo Cafe at the Level       Finish:  Brighton Pier

As this is a fairly short ride for this time of year, Sean and I thought that it might be a nice idea to combine it with a bit of a summer social by having a picnic on the beach at Rottingdean and possibly a swim for any brave souls!  If the weather is not good enough to have a picnic, we have provisionally booked the upstairs room at the Coach and Horses pub in Rottingdean.

We shall meet at the Velo Cafe at the Level at 10.30 and ride from there on the cycle lanes along the Lewes Rd to Sussex University.  From there we shall go up the slip road and round the roundabout to get onto the cycle path that runs parallel to the Falmer Rd.  This cycle path involves a not too challenging gradient, but at the top there are wonderful views across the Downs in one direction to Lewes and in the other direction across Brighton to the sea.  At this time of year the fields are a patchwork of different greens and there are also herds of beautiful cows.

We then cycle all the way down from Woodingdean to Rottingdean.  This road route is rather busy with traffic so we can cycle on the pavement which at first is not very wide but it soon widens out and is much safer to use than the road.  Once in Rottingdean we will make our way down to the seafront and, hopefully, if it is a sunny day we can have a picnic on the beach.  Those who do not wish to have a picnic can have lunch at the Coach and Horses.

After lunch we then cycle along the wonderful undercliff back to Brighton.

Look forward to seeing you all.

Angela and Sean

 

 

The Last Ride. Jim’s Report

Sunday 29 May 2016: Chichester 360°

In keeping with the title of this ride, bearings are given relative to Chichester Cathedral, clockwise from north. Some bearings had to be worked out afterwards, due to the non-visibility of the Cathedral.

Chichester Station: 190° (S by W). Thirteen riders left the station soon after 11am. I was not among them. I had not checked my emails that morning, and hence had missed Roger’s message about the 10:00 train being cancelled. I had to catch the 10:30 instead and pedal furiously to catch up. Moral: always check emails before a ride!

A lakeside pause. L-R Julian, Terry, Chris, Ian, Roger, Angela, Kate, Mick, Sikka, David, Jenny, Richard

Ivy Lake: 135° (SE). Spookily, before leaving home I had done someting I rarely do: read the ride description in detail, and traced the route on the map. Thus, even without a printout, I was able to work out roughly where to go. In the event I got the first bit slightly wrong. I knew the ride went through the old gravel pits to the SE of the town centre which are now lakes, but while the official route went alongside Vinnetrow, Runcton and New Lakes, I went between Ivy Lake and Nunnery Lake, then passing Triangle Lake, East and West Trout Lakes, and Copse Lake. I reckon I had the better deal: I later heard that the others had not seen much water, but I did, and I even spotted a coot training its young to fish.

Coot and chick

South Mundham: 155° (SSE). Here I caught up with Angela, Anne, Chris, David, Ian, Jenny, Julian, Kate, Mick, Richard, Sikka, Terry, and our leader, Roger. We were now 14 – the biggest turnout since last August – and the weather was exceeding the Met Office’s prediction, with clear blue skies.

Shopwyke: 80° (E by N). A straight run in with the spire straight ahead, to the A27 crossing where Ian left us to attend the Indian gate plaque unveiling at the Pavilion. It was good to see him back in the saddle at last after he broke his ankle last December. We headed north-west, past Portfield Cemetery, then west, to the enormous roundabout Roger had warned us about. This has green cycle-path sections, but, as Roger explained in his on-site briefing, these sections are interrupted by the roundabout exits and bikes do not have right of way. I’m not sure whether this is a good idea – it would be so easy for a cyclist to plough straight ahead and into the side of a turning vehicle.

The Bell Pub: 10° (N by E). Lunch! And jolly nice it was too! Washed down, in my case, by a pint of Good Old Boy from West Berkshire Brewery. Lunch conversation topics ranged over the usual eclectic mish-mash, including, obviously, the EU. Julian did not have a pudding. Anne and Mick left after lunch.

Chichester University: 25° (NNE). There was some discussion about how long this had existed. Someone said it was a former polytechnic, but a little internet research shows that it was not one of those late and very much lamented institutions that became universities in 1992, but had to wait another 7 years for degree awarding powers. It had formed in 1977 as the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (teaching degrees awarded by Sussex and Southampton). Its lineage goes back to Bishop William Otter, who was the first Principal of King’s College London, set up in 1829 as the Church’s answer to the “godless college”, UCL – which was the first university in the country to admit atheists, non-conformists and Jews.

Lavant: 0° (N). Fordwater Lane took us, disappointingly, to a concrete bridge, rather than a ford, across the River Lavant. Lavant is Latin for “washing”, so it’s not hard to guess what the river was used for, and the name of one of the roads – Sheepwash Lane – gives a clue as to what was being washed. The river gave its name to the village it flows through.

Is this the ex-ford?

West Broyle Road: 340° (NNW). This delightful and very Clarionesque lane runs for about a mile, approximately north-south. It leads to Brandy Hole Lane, running eastwards across the Centurion Way and Brandy Hole Copse. Roger had promised some insight into the name of this place; the “interpretation board” here explains that smugglers used it in the late 18^th century to hide barrels of brandy.

West Broyle Road

East Broyle Estate: 335° (NNW). All except Sikka and Terry eschewed the Centurion Way at this point, to follow Roger towards a promised view of the cathedral. We rode through the estate, all of whose roads are named after cathedral cities. And there it was! A fine view of the cathedral framed by trees.

Chichester College: 250° (WSW). We then took the Centurion Way/NCN2 back into town. Chichester College is the FE college you pass on this route, and Julian noticed that it appears to have an aeroplane cockpit parked next to it. It teaches a huge range of subjects, including Blacksmithing, Horse Care, and Stage Management, but apparently not aeronautical engineering.

Chichester Canal Centre: 180° (S). This was my first visit to the Canal Basin since the cafe was rebuilt. Eight of us had a lovely tea stop here before wending our way home. We thanked Roger for leading a very enjoyable and interesting ride, and for arranging such good weather.

Jim.

David negotiating a particularly narrow section of Fordwater Lane

News

30 May 2016

Dear All
I’m going to be away for the next two rides and the newsletters will be sent to you by Roger. So for ride details, ride reports and anything you’d like included please from now on send it to Roger at hinton@clara.net as well as to me (so that can keep up with things). But the main thing is to let Roger know.

We’re now OK until September apart from 24 July. If you’d like to take that one on please let Roger (and me) know.

Egrets Way – Sue (Priest) reports

Saturday 14th May, saw the official opening of a new section of the Egrets Way, the planned cycle route (mainly off road) between Lewes and Newhaven. Dozens of cyclists of all ages turned up to ride the new hard surfaced track from Southease to about half a mile from Piddinghoe, which cuts out about a mile and a half of the busy C7. A further half mile can be cut out by cycling through Piddinghoe village.
After the official opening, there were a number of guided rides and refreshments and entertainment provided at the youth hostel in Southease.
The Ouse Valley campaign group has worked hard to get this section of the route open and it is to be welcomed as an important strategic stage in the overall project. There are still difficulties with landowners objecting to some parts of the route but the strategy is to work one step at a time to complete each section as it becomes possible.
Lewes Clarion members had a great day out in the sun and enjoyed creating their own route – http://travelloglewes.co.uk/index.php?page=egrets-way-peacehaven-plotlands-and-the-seaside – including an ice cream by the seaside. Excellent way to finish.

Sue
_________________________________________________
A couple of extracts from Cycling UK (ex-CTC) ‘Cycle Clips’ that caught my eye.

Derisory Funding for Cycling

Government funding for cycling is set to fall to 72p per head (the equivalent of just two pints of milk) for residents in England outside of London by 2020/21, compared to funding of £86 per head for motorways and major roads (equivalent to a magnum of champagne per person!). Since the launch of #morethanmilk over 1,800 emails have been sent to MPs in England, asking them to support a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin MP. As one of our members put it in an email to us this week: “We used to ride on the left of the road. Now we ride on what’s left of the road.”
Anyone for an amphibious bike?

It’s normally the preserve of Q’s gadget workshop in a blockbusting James Bond movie. But this incredible Dutch inventor has just cycled across the Atlantic in his six-metre long amphibious ‘bike’ and is now continuing his journey in a true cycle around the world! The inventor, Ebrahim Hemmatnia, says his travels are aimed at encouraging the “free exchange of ideas” across the world. This Bond-esque bike is laden with gizmos and high-tech design. The foam core body is covered with a carbon fibre skin. It has solar panels to power the desalinator, provide navigation lights and enable Ebrahim to use the satellite phone. The bike even has a rechargeable motor which can be powered by pedalling, but then putting motors on a bicycle can feel a bit like cheating at times …

Ian

The Origins of the Clarion Cycling Club and Cycling in the 1890s

Some items from “Cycle Trifle’in The Clarion, 24 December 1898 discussing the whereabouts of the  Easter Meet.

 

 

 

 

The Next Ride: Sunday 29 May 2016

Chichester 360°

An anti-clockwise ride around Chichester, starting and ending at the station.

We head east towards a cyclist friendly footbridge over the cyclist unfriendly A27 and then south along a track across the lakes towards North Mundham. Note St Stephen’s Church on our right, which can trace its heritage back to the Domesday Book; the tower was built around 1500 and the rest of what can be seen now is mainly a Victorian restoration.

On through Runcton (smart houses and manicured gardens), then we cross the A259 and join the B2144 which will take us right up to the city walls. Here we experience a huge but very cycle friendly roundabout; we’ll take the 4th exit, just after the church, onto the A286 where we’ll find lunch at the Bell Inn.

There is one design fault with this otherwise perfectly crafted ride: the only serious climb comes just after lunch; it’s the first half mile up College Lane past Chichester University – sorry!

As we leave the city’s northern suburbs we’ll take a short stretch of footpath alongside a pleasant stream and then join Fordwater Road down into Lavant. Peaceful country lanes take us through idyllic countryside, look out at one point for a large solar panel array on the left. At Brandy Hole copse we can pause to read about the origin of its name.

The final section of the ride takes us through a hillside suburb; look out for a fine view of Chichester cathedral just before we join the Centurion Way for our run down to the station.

Practicalities:
Start: 11 am at Chichester Station (south side).
Getting there: 10.00 train from Brighton; 10:04 or 10:20 from Hove
Distance: 18 miles
Undulations: Short climb just after lunch, otherwise gentle.
Terrain: mainly on-road with some track & footpath
Catering: lunch at The Bell Inn; option for tea at the canal basin at the end of the ride.
Getting home: trains leave Chichester for Hove and Brighton at 23 & 53
My mobile: 0789 985 1172

Roger

The Last Ride. Sikka’s Report

Sunday 15 May 2016 – LEWES  TO  BERWICK

The Winterbourne Stream in Lewes Railway Land Nature reserve

Jim, Julian, Haider, Sikka and Anne took the train from Brighton and sailed through Lewes and then Glynde and on to Berwick!   We couldn’t get out!    None of us  had ever known a train be too long for the platform in Lewes and we were all stuck in coach number 7!

Fortunately, Jim had the presence of mind, when we were finally released at Berwick, to get us on the next train back – due in 7 minutes.   We raced over the crossing and managed to emerge in Lewes by 10.   Mic had cycled from Brighton, Angela had driven from Saltdean and Sean had arrived from Plumpton Green.  We were reunited.

Jim had planned to deliver a lecture on historic station buildings and give us a guided tour of the Lewes Railway Land Nature Reserve.   However, just as we entered the Reserve, Sean had a puncture.   Jim once more to the rescue replacing the inner tube with one provided by Anne, and cut short the tour.  All completed by 10.30 am – the usual time for a Clarion ride to begin!

L-R: watching the workman: Sikka, Haider, Jim, Sean, Anne, Angela, Julian. Doing the work: Mick

Jim was somewhat put out that a poster advertising 150 years of the Seaford line, ignored the fact that only the Newhaven to Seaford bit of the line was actually laid in 1864!   There were a few more salient facts concerning the history of the Brighton, London, Uckfield and Hastings lines linking to Lewes, and then it was time to move on.

A map from the book “Haywards Heath to Seaford” by Vic Mitchell and Ketih Smith, showing Lewes Station soon after the third and present station was built, in 1889. The second station was a similar shape to the third but was further north, near the building labelled “Sorting Office”, and utilised the tracks still shown towards the top of the map, retained as goods tracks for a while but ultimately becoming Railway Lane. The first station was a terminus, somewhere near the Goods Depot shown at top centre. Note that in those days platform 3 (which was then platform 6) was even shorter than it is now!

We cycled along the track by the river Ouse, and up a footpath to Church Lane. Here Jim led some of the group to peer over the parapet of the old railway bridge and  railway cutting, remnants of the old Uckfield line.

The view from the bridge, looking north

We then cycled up Church Lane to cross the A26 at the pedestrian crossing, turned right and took Mill Lane up and over onto the cycle track leading to Ringmer, thus avoiding the horrendous Earwig Corner crossing into the B2192!

Another delightful detour at the end of this track took us into Gote Lane and round the back of Ringmer on quiet roads, turning left at Springett Avenue and across the B2192.   We enjoyed lovely quiet roads for the rest of the morning, passing Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum where we dutifully admired the statue of a fox.

After crossing the A22, on the road to Framfield we tried to catch a glimpse of Hoogstraten’s house, but the trees were too tall.   More quiet, gentle lanes, including Hollow Lane, and in honour of this memorable name, Jim brought the poem The Hollow Men which Anne read out to us over lunch.

We arrived rather late at The Kings Head in East Hoathly, but were able to order food – reasonably priced and good. Over the meal the EU referendum was discussed as well as the Eurovision song contest; Jim took a photo of King Charles’ death warrant on the wall of the pub, and later, after reviewing world politics,  we descended into an exchange of ‘cheese jokes’.

The death warrant

After lunch we made our way to Berwick station and had a lovely ride along a good track through Vert Wood, by-passing the village of Ripe and arriving in time to have drinks at the Berwick Inn before catching our train home.

Thank you Jim for a lovely day – and a bit of an adventure at the beginning!

Sikka

The Hollow Men (by T.S. Eliot)

Mistah Kurtz-he dead
A penny for the Old Guy

I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom Remember us-if at all-not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men. II Eyes I dare not meet in dreams In death’s dream kingdom These do not appear: There, the eyes are Sunlight on a broken column There, is a tree swinging And voices are In the wind’s singing More distant and more solemn Than a fading star. Let me be no nearer In death’s dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves In a field Behaving as the wind behaves No nearer- Not that final meeting In the twilight kingdom III This is the dead land This is cactus land Here the stone images Are raised, here they receive The supplication of a dead man’s hand Under the twinkle of a fading star. Is it like this In death’s other kingdom Waking alone At the hour when we are Trembling with tenderness

Lips that would kiss Form prayers to broken stone. IV The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river Sightless, unless The eyes reappear As the perpetual star Multifoliate rose Of death’s twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men. V Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear prickly pear Here we go round the prickly pear At five o’clock in the morning. Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow Life is very long Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent Falls the Shadow For Thine is the Kingdom For Thine is Life is For Thine is the This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.

News

16 May 2016                                                             

Dear All       

Sorry about my mistake about Sue’s ride in the last issue. Thanks to Jim, it was spotted pretty quickly and I was able to send out a correction before too much damage was done.

We still have no one volunteering for 12 June so first offer gets the job as usual.

I’m very short of material for this newsletter. Please send me anything you think people would find interesting for the next one. In the meantime here’s something I came across while in the course of some research I’m doing about the British Left and the First World War.

Fortunately, Jim and Sikka have sent me the whole of T S Eliot’s Hollow Men to include – at least I suppose that is the idea – so that will more than make up for rather less  to read here.

I only noticed it after I’d photographed the page it appeared on for quite different reasons.  That’s why it is a bit skewiff and not 100% complete – but readable I think’  It’s from Justice the British Socialist Party weekly early in 1915. Anyone for quadrille classes?

Ian

The Origins of the Clarion Cycling Club and Cycling in the 1890s

More from the ‘Club Stewpot’ in The Clarion, 27 February 1897, discussing the whereabouts of the Easter Meet.

The Next Ride: Sunday 15 May 2016 – Lewes to Berwick

Ringmer – Palehouse Common – East Hoathly –
Whitesmith – Vert Wood – Ripe

I love those lanes to the north-east of Ringmer – Norlington Lane, Green Lane, Harveys Lane, Bradford’s Lane – and the lanes around Ripe: Mill Lane, Mark Cross Lane, Langtye Lane. Nice and flat, narrow and quiet, give or take the odd horse.

On previous rides we’ve tended to turn west after the fox statue, and make for Isfield. Maybe that is what Sue has in mind for her ride on June 26^th; but we will venture eastwards today, and take in the delights of Palehouse Common and Hollow Lane (which might bring to mind a certain poem by T S Eliot …) before arriving at our lunch stop, the King’s Head in the delightful little Sussex village of East Hoathly which, in true Sussex tradition (think of the Grinsteads and Chiltingtons) is nowhere near West Hoathly.

A semi-traverse of Vert Wood if not too muddy, then into that lovely flat, open countryside to the north of the Downs (Laughton Levels?) and so to Berwick Station.

Practicalities:

Start at Lewes Station at 09:30.

Trains: Get the 09:12 Bexhill train from Brighton to Lewes. It will probably be an electric train with plenty of space for bikes, as the maggots are resting today. On arrival in Lewes, remain on Platform 3 for a quick look at the latest railway history poster, and a game of guess-what-they-left-out. Then an optional repeat of my brief history of Lewes Station if anyone wants it.

Length: 25 miles.

Duration: 6 hours including lunch and cat herding.

Getting back: Trains leave Berwick hourly for Brighton at 40 minutes past the hour. If we arrive at the wrong time, the Berwick Inn has a bouncy castle we can play on.

Terrain: Flat – we never go above the 75m contour, and any “climbs” we might encounter are gentle ones. There is a very short section of the B2192, but otherwise quiet lanes and a reasonably hard track through Vert Wood. If not too muddy, we can also go via the Lewes Railway Land Nature Reserve at the start of the ride.

This is a linear ride; anyone arriving by car can park at Lewes Station and get the train back there from Berwick; or park at Berwick and get the train to Lewes.

Jim.

The Last Ride. Julian’s Report

Brighton Palace Pier to Seaford via Newhaven. 1 May 2016

Sean and I waited until 10.10, but no one else appeared, and so just the two of us set off. The wind was light but cool and it was sunny with gently changing high altitude long cirrostratus clouds. At first along Madeira Drive we went within constricting barriers being prepared to protect vehicle exhibits. Then after Black Rock the undercliff path was not too congested with the adults, children in prams and on mini-scooters, dogs and a few other cyclists, and we heard and saw a few Fulmars. After the steep climb up out of Saltdean followed by the rapid descent we started on the labyrinthine back streets of Telscombe Cliffs to reach the northern parts of Peacehaven ending on the bus 12 route until turning off through Lower Hoddern Farm. Just beyond Hoddern Farm with its horse activities and a few overflying swallows, we had to get each bike on its side under the locked steel gate, but then gazed at the wonderful views across to Lewes castle, the white chalk cliffs of Cuilfail and to the east the Mount Caburn iron age hill fort, before zooming down into Piddinghoe village. A busy stretch of the road into Newhaven had to be endured until we reached the peacefully located harbour-side Ark pub, where Sean had his Lewes-brewed essential Harveys ale, while I had a pint of lemon and lime. The first ten miles had taken us exactly two hours.

After this short break, we went on the newly resurfaced path round the Ouse Estuary Nature Reserve (as we did on 10 January), we saw a green brimstone butterfly and then reached the concrete way along the top of the shingle beach from Buckle into Seaford and on to the shore cafe just past the Martello Tower. Here Sean had a cup of tea and I ate a gorgeous mincemeat-filled thick pastry slice. We then biked to the Seaford railway station completing a further five miles from Newhaven. The ticket office was closed, the train had no guard to sell us tickets and it stopped at every station on the way back to Brighton. Sean got off at London Road and I changed to the Hove train on which I finally bought my ticket.

Julian