It poured all of last night and it was still pouring this
morning. The wind was straight out of
the north and into our faces. The
weather service was saying it as 50 F (10C) but it sure felt about 10 degrees
colder. So as we sat facing each other
this morning there was a lot of discussion around the course and the weather
conditions. The ride was a 50 mile (80
Kms) ride with the first 30 miles (50 kms) half rolling ups and downs and the
last 20 miles(30 kms) losing 900 feet (275 m) which was just under 1%. The only unfortunate part was that 80% of the
course was on unpaved trails. This meant
that with this much rain the course was going to be one huge slippery mud
hole. My feeling was that we would be lucky
to average 6 mph (10km/hr), including stops, lunch etc so this was going to be
an 8-9 hr ride.
Bottom line was we decided to go see the National Heritage Site
of Quarry Bank Mills, instead. Quarry Bank
Mills is one of the best Britain’s best industrial heritage sites. It is a cotton mill which was built in 1790 at
the start of the industrial revolution.
The mill is persevered in original condition with a 67 hp water wheel
which drove the mill. The mill operated through 1910. It is by far the
largest water wheel I have ever seen. It is approximately 30 ft in diameter and
40 feet wide. Inside were all the
different machines needed to take the raw cotton bales and turn it into cotton
cloth. While only a few were running it
was pretty loud and when all 320 looms where running back at the height of
production it was deafening. In fact
that was the major. Later steam engines
were installed and they had two of the original steam engines running. A large walking beam engine and a smaller
although more power full horizontal cylinder engine. After walking through the mill we went on a
guided tour of the apprentice quarters.
There were 90 child apprentices who worked in the mill. The children were indentured at age 9 for a
period of 10 years. The conditions were
harsh to say the least. However they
were fed, clothed, and given a rudimentary education. It was a page right out of Charles Dicken’s
Great Expectations when Pip was indentured.
After the mill tour we jumped back in the van and drove down
to Barnsley where we are staying. The
rain was still pouring down and it was pretty nasty looking out there. We passed a couple of places where the bike
trail crossed the road and it looked like a total swamp. Never
the less it was beautiful country side and I was sorry to be missing the
ride. Jos wanted to jump out and go but
got voted down. I was glad to be in the nice warm van.
On the way into town Jos spotted a Halfords Cycle and Sports
shop. After checking in I looked and
they had a Garmin Explore 820 for 244 Pounds ($450 Cdn) which was $80 cheaper
than I could have gotten it in Canada. So
after checking into our hotel we hurried straight over there. They also had these big mud guard fenders on
sale for 14 Pounds.
Tomorrow is 60 miles (100 kms) in to York where we are
staying in this luxury house boat.
New Garmin (Maps and courses already installed), new mud guard
fenders and it has quit raining. I am
pumped to get back out there!
Terry
4 comments:
Too bad to lose another ride day, but better safe and happy in the van. Perhaps Agnes got a break from driving too.
Neat to see the cotton mill.
I will be interested in real life reviews of your new Garmin 820 because I am thinking of getting one to replace the 810 I used in Ireland (and returned to MEC upon returning to Canada).
Ken C.
Hey. Interesting tour of a turn of the century cotton mill. I trust the cotton was supplied from the American South and picked by slaves. I was wondering what kind of power one gets from water mills. 67 hp is VW class. Old timers were resourceful.
If you guys had toughed it out and hit the road I am sure there would have been stories aplenty of riding through the bogs. That is what I primarily remember of Dunlop's ride down the Danube River during a 1000 year flood. I found riding on wet and steep roads terrifying with clincher breaks. My current disk breaks would have helped. You guys sound like you could really use mountain bikes. Great adventure. Look forward to the next installment😎
Sandra really enjoy's Agnes' narrative😊
Seems like a good day to regroup, take in some local history and luckily trip across the bicycle shop and find a new Garmin and fenders at reasonable prices. So keeping with your rain theory, once you get those fenders on, the weather should clear up. This also gave you time to get your maps reloaded. Sounds like a good day.
Here's to smooth sailing today!
Gail
The green of England! Lovely. But not the rain and mud. What narrative of Agnes'?
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