Sunday, 13 August 1944
Log of a Cycle Tour to North Wales, by Roy Spurgeon, with Leslie Lee. 12 August 14 August
Leaving the hostel at 0930 hours (3894.7), we went round to the only restaurant open in Oxford for breakfast on a Sunday. We found that we were not allowed to leave our cycles in the main street, so we had to go back to the Hostel and go round again on "Shanks's Pony".
We had quite a good meal, collected our cycles and set off for Stratford at 1030 hours (3895.7). Leaving by the Banbury road, we very soon arrived at Kidlington (3900.9) where we stopped for a cup of tea and laid in a stock of sandwiches in case we were not able to obtain any lunch. Off again at 1120 hours, we left the Banbury road and turned down a second class road in order to head for Stratford. This took us down by the side of Kidlington airfield and we stopped for some time to watch the flying before turning back to the north-west on the road to Chipping Norton, which climbs steadily to a height of 756 feet and up which our speed was by no means fast.
We passed the grounds, on our left, of Blenheim Palace, the gift of Queen Anne and the nation to the Duke of Marlborough and named after his most famous victory, then went through the town of Woodstock, quite a large place, well known for its glove trade, built entirely of grey stone and looking very clean. The weather was perfect, a brilliant sun in a clear sky, even though the wind was quite strong in our faces. When we had almost reached the end of our long climb up, a marvellous sight met our gaze - a large transport cafe - and serving hot dinners! Naturally we pulled up, just at the right time, 1255 hours (3914.5) and the subsequent dinner exceeded our wildest expectations, particularly as the proprietor informed us that it was the only place open for miles.
Setting off once again, we by-passed Chipping Norton, climbing over the rest of the hill, the road being almost completely deserted apart from large military convoys coming in the other direction. Then followed a glorious run down for several miles into the pretty Little village of Long Compton, again built of grey stone, but with exceedingly well kept cottages. We also noticed a very interesting old square gate house forming the entrance to the village churchyard. Climbing once more, out of the village, we paused on the hill to watch several gliders being towed over our heads at a low level. Whilst we were stationary, two cyclists came down the hill in the opposite direction. Little knowing what a hill they would shortly encounter, they shouted to us that "it was much better going their way". As one man, Leslie and I, both saying exactly the same thing at the same time, retorted with great satisfaction, "Is it? You wait!" thinking of the glorious long run down we had just had.
Carrying on again after this little episode, we came to Tidmington, with its peculiar church, having an archway right through the middle of the building, and then ran across the River Stour into the town of Shipston-on-Stour. The countryside here was magnificent, with rolling fields for miles; the fields of pasture were particularly interesting for the perfectly straight undulating furrows which formed their surface and which we decided, rightly or wrongly, must be for drainage purposes.
The town of Shipston-on-Stour is not particularly inspiring. At 1450, when we reached it, it appeared almost completely deserted. Built mainly of red brick, its houses seemed ugly and ill kept, though it did boast a small cinema. From the main road, we did not see the Stour, though the town is supposed to stand on it, but we pushed on without stopping, still in beautiful weather, through one or two small villages to Stratford-on-Avon, which we reached at 1615 hours after a fairly fast ride. We crossed the Avon by the old bridge and had some tea in the main road. Then we decided to go straight out to the hostel in the village of Shottery and come back into the town afterwards. We found the Hostel without difficulty (one of the few not situated on the top of a hill) and found it to be a spacious place, standing in its own grounds, pleasantly wooded and very clean (3937.5).
Having signed on and settled in, we went back into Stratford and, by dint of a certain amount of quite unintentional wangling, hired a rowing skiff from the boathouse beside the bridge. The river was very crowded with boats, for the town itself was full of holidaymakers, mostly day trippers, and we had great fun. Whilst on the river, we saw the large Shakespeare memorial theatre, opened in 1932 and also the parish church of St. Trinity (see photo) which contains Shakespeare's grave. We spent a very pleasant hour in the boat and then returned to the Hostel at high speed just in time for supper.
Our meal over, quite a good one, but somewhat meagre, we set out for the town once more. We saw Anne Hathaway's cottage, a pretty little thatched building only 100 yards from the hostel and also Shakespeare's birthplace in the town (see photo). We thoroughly examined all the streets in the town and found that they contained a number of very attractive and interesting buildings. Passing over the bridge once more, we explored the towpath down-stream through the park as far as was practicable, then recrossed by a footbridge and saw the memorial theatre from the landward side. Built in the modern style, but of red brick, the building is not very imposing and could, in my opinion, have been considerably improved upon.
An interesting free ferry which crosses the river below the bridges and which has one of its termini just in front of the Memorial theatre, deserves some comment. A chain is secured across the river below water level and is carried over two pulleys set one above the other on the side of the boat, the top pulley having a handle attached to it. The action of turning the handle winds in the chain but, as it is secured to each bank, it is the boat which is moved and so drawn across the river, rather hard work, which the custodian was very willing to hand over to any willing volunteer wanting to impress his girl friend. We saw a number of fellows start off, turning the handle at high speed, and then getting steadily slower as they were unable to keep it up. The boat is a square, flat-bottomed barge with shelving ends some considerable amusement was caused by quite a strong party of small schoolboys who leaped from the boat almost before it had touched shore with loud cries of "D-day", with all the dash of Commandos from a landing craft in the forefront of an invasion!
Having completely explored everything that the town had to offer, we amused ourselves on the river bank for the rest of the evening and then returned the hostel and bed (3948.1). Stratford is a very well laid out town, with many public gardens and open spaces and would be an excellent place in which to spend an inland holiday.
Total cycling distance for the day - 53.4 miles
Next day: 14 August