Two bridges and a presentation of two prestigious cycling awards at the Blue Bell Wood Amphitheatre, , in .

Cyclists: Jane Allen, Keith Baskill, Dave Berger, Derek Clark, Joanne Hall, Craig Jaques-Newton, Helen Kitson OYB, Phil MacMullen, John Mather, Ian Metcalfe, Sheila Mullen, Roy Peckitt, Paul Sears, George Sweeting OYB, Bob Watson, Trev Whatmore, Dave Big Wheel Williamson OYB, SCC

Full route: Morrisons’ Car Park Beverley, Bridge Car Park, Humber Bridge Barton on Humber, , Horkstow Suspension Bridge, Saxby All Saints, and then returning to Beverley via Barton, Hessle, Anlaby, Willerby and Skidby’s Sales Cafe.

Distance from Beverley: 48.57

Weather conditions: Sunny with a clear blue sky and a few large white clouds.

A simple act of generosity of two gifts that sent a ripple through our cycling world...

I don’t suppose any of you know Emma Laycock: to start with she’s a friend of my daughters, Elizabeth & Helen. Well, Arr Em, as her dad calls her in his unmistakable Lancashire accent with its heavy, well-rounded vowels is our benefactress for want of a better name. It was Emma who gave our group The On Yer Bike plaque awarded for 100 rides and more recently the Silver Cycle Clip Award for 150 rides.

EMMA

It’s a lunchtime stop at Saxby All Saints and we are seated on the three astra turf seating tiers of the Blue Bell Wood Amphitheatre and waiting for the presentations to take place. It’s my turn today for an OYB. Like a batsman in his nervous nineties, I’ve been on 90 rides or so for ages. Some expressed the view that I might even be ninety when I eventually clock up a century of rides! I look around half expecting the press or Yorkshire Evening News. After all an OYB and the higher ward, The Silver Cycle Clip, presented today to Big Wheel are prestigious awards in the cycling world, but no, there’s only Adrian a Saxby resident tapping the village hall window frames for signs of rot. During my presentation from Big Wheel, I read a text from Emma in which she says how pleased she is that her little gifts have given so much light-hearted fun. We are in the shadow of Saxby’s imposing church with its unusual pyramid roof which was designed by the prolific 19th century English Gothic architect, Sir . Beyond the church is an uphill track which disappears into mixed woodland. It’s a magical setting for Saxby’s village amphitheatre and would make a good scenery backcloth for a play in a theatre.

A little earlier most had whizzed past Saxby’s church, village hall and amphitheatre heading for the shop & post office at Bonby, the next village, for a sandwich. There are a few differences of opinion on the shop’s forecourt about the route to follow and Big Wheel has to take a lead and rein us in. He’s determined that we go back to the Saxby and the amphitheatre for the presentations so after some of us have eaten our sandwiches we retrace our journey for a couple of miles or so back along this low road.

The first of the villages we pass through is Horkstow. Last year on this ride we missed visiting the Horkstow Suspension Bridge which is one of the earliest surviving suspension bridges in the country and is made out of wrought iron and timber. Its single span of 140 feet crosses the which is dead straight like an arrow and this Grade 2 listed bridge was designed and completed by Sir John Rennie (1794 – 1874) FRS and past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1836. He must have been a man with a fine mind to have conceived this little bridge of such engineering beauty for all to use and waves of anger fill me to see that others in a mindless way in more recent times have defaced it with graffiti. With threats to life and limb and the possibility of falling into the Ancholme below these acts of vandalism have even been done on the most inaccessible places.

After Horkstow is Saxby All Saints, Bonby and Worlaby. Locally, these villages are called “low villages” because they are all roughly half way down the edge of a steep chalk scarp slope. Higher up, on top of this escarpment and running parallel to the road running through the villages is a narrow meandering lane on a ridge. Hillside lanes in all the villages also link the B1204 to this top lane. There are fine views of the wide carr lands of the wide Ancholme valley even from this lower road. At Worlaby we leave the low road and cycling up a fairly steep winding lane like a cork screw to the top of this chalk ridge. We change direction and cycle northwards heading back towards Barton. The views open up even more. There’s Reads Island in the estuary; steelworks is now more visible with its four blast furnaces and cooling towers which I could see from my bedroom window in the town of my birth; and there are the westerly escarpments of the Yorkshire Wolds and in the haze the Vale of York. I believe that this side of the estuary gives a better view of the Humber Bridge and from an elevated position we admire its full majestic and graceful span. It harmonises so well with the surrounding landscape.

It’s a long downhill freewheel into Barton to the Old Tile Works Cafe. On the decking outside in the sunshine we watch above as a steady stream of traffic crosses over the bridge. Big clouds drift dreamily in a clear sky. Big Wheel beams and looks up from his triple scoop: 150 rides that’s some achievement but so is 150 triple scoops. But he’s another reason to beam: for the first time he’s on his new electric bike. On steep hills, his catchphrase: “you don’t want it too easy,” will take on a whole new meaning!

I’ll soon be leaving the remaining riders who have a bit more to do before their next stop at the Sails Cafe, Skidby and then to finish in Beverley. (Earlier, I joined them in my car at the Humber Bridge Car Park.) I glance round at the happy faces and my thoughts return to Saxby’s charming little amphitheatre:

This happy breed of men, this little world; This precious stone set in a silver sea. Which serves in its office as a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this .

George Sweeting 8th July 2019

100 RIDES

150 RIDES