Wednesday, 23 August 1944

Log of a Cycle Tour to North Wales, by Roy Spurgeon, with Leslie Lee.   22 August   24 August

In the morning, the weather could only be described as miserable. There was a very strong, cold wind, with driving rain and a thick mist restricting visibility to about 200 yards. However, the warden assured us that it would clear before noon so, with his permission, we delayed our departure until then. Sure enough, by 1200 hours, the rain had become a fine drizzle and the sky looked much brighter so, fully caped against the elements, we set off across the plateau for Holywell, which we reached by 1245 hours (4323.3). By this time the rain had started again in earnest so we began to look for lunch in the High Street and, after a certain amount of persistence in the face of adversity, we had a very good lunch in the King's Head. This was very fortunate, for we were under cover while the worst of the rain was falling and, by the time we had finished, it had relapsed once more into a fine drizzle. Holywell is a fair sized town, larger than we expected, but as it was early closing day, and a rotten one at that, we stayed no longer than it took us to get our lunch.

In our original route plan, we had not intended to touch Holywell; had the weather been better, we should have gone back into St. Asaph from Bodlonfa, headed north to Rhyl and taken the coast road through Prestatyn and round the Point of Air to Flint. As it was, however, we took the shortest route to Flint, through Holywell.

We left Holywell at about 1430 hours (4323.3) and ran down to meet the coast road at the industrial town of Flint at 1500 hours (4327.8). We were then on the very long, straight road running almost due south-east along the coast of Flintshire on the south side of the estuary of the Dee, and a most uninteresting ride it proved to be through semi-industrialised urban districts reminding one of the inner suburbs of London. Possibly we might have appreciated the panorama more had we been able to see a little further on either side than we could owing to the thick mist.

Nevertheless, by 1535 hours, when we reached Shotton (4332.7), with its many large factories, the rain had stopped. We halted to take off our capes and were about to restart when I found I had a puncture. This occasioned some delay, particularly as everything was very wet and we were not on the road again until 1600 hours. By this time, the weather had cleared marvellously to a really bright summer day; consequently, our morale soared, and turning left on the Chester road, we crossed the river Dee, thus approaching Chester from the north-west on a very much more pleasant road. Although we had crossed the Dee, we were still in Wales, for the course of the river no longer forms the boundary between England and Wales as it once did, because owing to the gradual silting up of its estuary, the course of the river has now entirely changed and it lies about 2 miles south of its original position. As a matter of interest, it was this silting of the Dee estuary which caused the city of Chester to lose its position as a great port during the last three or four centuries to Liverpool, then only a tiny village.

On this very flat, straight road, there occurred an amusing incident. We observed in the distance a small boy busily engaged in the fascinating pastime of collecting water in a can from the ditch beside the road and throwing it at passing traffic. Rising to the emergency, since we were an obvious target, we dropped into single file to allow maximum manoeuvrability, Leslie leading, and approached at a fairLy slow speed. Just before we drew abreast of the lad, Leslie, with a threatening gesture, drew his sheath knife and said in a loud voice, "You do!" The small boy was so taken by surprise that he dropped the can and its contents and nearly fell in the ditch himself. A very satisfactory climax to an incident which might easily have involved a ducking.

Shortly afterwards, we crossed into Cheshire and at 1700 hours (4341.1), reached the city of Chester, built upon a rock eminence, the site of the Roman Devana Castra (Camp on the Dee). Although we had little time to spare, owing to our late start in the morning, we saw the fine, red sandstone cathedral (see photo), parts of which date from Norman times, with its 127 feet high tower and also the city's 18th Century East Gate (see drawing). Chester is a most interesting city, still enclosed by its 14th Century walls and containing many timber buildings dating from the 16th and 17th Centuries. The four main streets which converge on the Market Cross present Chester's most famous feature, the Rows. These are formed of continuous, paved galleries occupying the front part of the first floor of all the buildings and are reached by stairs from the street, the pavements themselves being thus covered in. All Chester's best shops were originally built in the Rows as a protection for their merchandise against the Welsh, who, when raiding the town as they often did, could rifle the lesser shops on the ground floor but found the best booty beyond their reach, since the doors on the staircases would be shut at the first alarm. Missiles could also be thrown down on the raiders from these Rows without there being any effective retaliation.

Leaving with regret, although it was early closing day, we headed east on Watling Street for the Hostel at Delamere Forest. Forking left at Tarvin after we had eaten our packed lunches for tea in a field at the side of the road, it was not long before we turned off on to a pleasant country road and arrived at the Hostel at 1845 hours (4350.9). Leslie made a spectacular arrival by skidding on the loose stones at the gate but jumped clear of his cycle after losing control and was unhurt. The Hostel, a converted house, although small and therefore somewhat cramped, is quite comfortable and is ideally situated right on the edge of the magnificent Delamere Forest, which is composed in the main of pine, silver birch and Spanish chestnut trees. Apart from a very short stroll and a trip for Leslie through the forest to get the bread, we did little else before bed.

Total cycling distance for the day - 36.8 miles.

Next day: 24 August