Introduction
Just some pictures from three bike rides on three separate days in late July and the first of August 2012.
Leighton Buzzard to the Brickhills
My parents came to visit overnight - by bike along the canal. (Mum's been planning that for years, ever since she realised that you can go practically the whole way on the canal towpath.) In the morning when they set off back, I joined them for the first ten miles to Leighton Buzzard, where we separated.
I decided to return home by a different route - instead of along the canal, which is nice and flat, I aimed for all three Brickhills: Great Brickhill, Little Brickhill, and Bow Brickhill. Those are three villages on the top of the hills. The name 'Brickhill' isn't related to bricks; it means 'hill hill' in a combination of languages, so when you take that into account, it sums to a total of six hills! Not a very sensible cycling route.
At one point the road got so sketchy it reminded me of Devon: very narrow and with weeds growing in the middle. Good for cycling on (except for the hill thing), but probably not great if you're in a car and meet another driver.
Great Brickhill wasn't that great (it's just bigger than the other two). I didn't even take any pictures there. Little Brickhill, not far on, was much nicer.
The standout feature of Little Brickhill is, of course, the disused petrol station.
After that I went past the golf course and down into Bow Brickhill. Which is fine but I've seen it lots of times before and it doesn't have a disused petrol station, so I didn't take any pictures. I eventually made it back home (completely exhausted from all the hills) in time for lunch.
Clifton Reynes
I decided to ride up north to the village of Clifton Reynes, near Olney.
That painting is signed 'im not defacing property, im painting a face on it - Heks 2011'. Nice quote, even if it's missing a few apostrophes. Incidentally, I spent ages messing with the photo so everything's visible; don't look too closely or you might spot the glitches. :)
I only really went to the edge of Olney - probably should visit it properly some time. Anyway, I turned east on footpaths.
The map isn't hugely clear about the path through here; it marks a ford, and my folding bike isn't really built for fords, so I wasn't sure I could get through. But in actual fact there is a footbridge.
Across the bridge, I climbed the hill and looked back.
You may not be surprised to hear that shortly after I took that picture, it started to rain. I hurried to Clifton Reynes church, hoping to shelter in the porch, but in fact it did me one better: the church was open (and quite interesting, too).
A heavy shower lasted fifteen minutes or so, then the sun came out again.
On the way back, I decided to see if I could get a view of the nearby wind farm. I went up there a few years back, but that was before it was finished.
I got closer than that picture, but not as close as I wanted before the lane ran out. Oh well.
I returned via Emberton, Sherington, and Newport Pagnell again. To vary the route, I decided to take the old railway path west and join the MK redway system that way instead. That involved the motorway underpass with nice graffiti.
Kempston Hardwick
I got the local train to Kempston Hardwick, for a circular ride to Stewartby and back.
There was once a plan to dump nuclear waste here, but now they're building houses instead. (At least, I assume it's 'instead'.)
I took a minor road to a village called Houghton Conquest, because it had such a silly name. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much else to recommend it (although the church is quite impressive and it does have a shop that sells ice cream). My next stop was Stewartby.
Stewartby was the last local brickworks to close. When I first lived here, if the wind blew from that exact direction, you could smell the soot in the air all day. No more. But it does still have some quite large chimneys, because they're listed buildings.
At that point my planned route went a bit wrong. They've built an enormous new dual-carriageway to replace the existing road, and the footpath I had intended to take is now blocked off. After some consideration, I found a road that crossed on a huge new bridge, and managed to get to Wootton (which turned out not to be a very interesting place anyway).
I left Wootton on a bridleway, although I wasn't sure whether it would make it back across the new road. As it turned out, I needn't have worried.
I'd checked the timetable (the trains are hourly, or a bit less) and arrived back at Kempston Hardwick station in good time for the next service.
