I'm sending this week's news and updates out early because I'm away
from email for the next few days. I'll send out a report of Jim's ride
midweek. In the meantime.....

===

RIDE REPORT
Wandle Valley Festival 06/06/09

Every year, we offer a ride along the full length of the Wandle Trail
as part of the annual Wandle Valley Festival. In its heyday, the river
powered 90 mills and earned the title of the Hardest Working River In
The UK! It now boasts a hugely important cycling and walking route,
forming part of the Avenue Verte traffic-free route from London to
Paris as well as being our local Sustrans route. Most of our rides
utilise a small part of the Wandle Trail at some point but the signage
is poor and most people get lost when they try to follow it on their
own. The expensive newly installed signage will unfortunately do
little to improve the situation.

Numbers varied along the route but we had a total of 14 at one point.
The miserable winter weather seemed to keep people indoors today.
Beddington Park was fairly empty as we had our first sighting of the
river Wandle, by the ornamental terracotta bridge. We followed it out
of the park, past one of the few remaining mill buildings at
Beddington, on our way to the Croydon source at Waddon Ponds. There's
just one pond now as the other was filled in during the 60s but it
retains its plural name. An industrial estate sits where the second
pond used to be.

There are plans to deculvert the river further upstream so we visited
Wandle Park in Croydon which used to have a boating lake fed by the
Wandle but that too was filled in during the 60s. Word on the street
is that the council miscalculated how much it would cost to reveal the
river and despite winning money to do the work, they now can't afford
it. A mini festival in the park was starting to get going but without
anyone to enjoy it.

We retraced our steps back to Beddington Park over the old watercress
beds behind Carew Manor and out towards Carshalton Ponds, the other
source, where we stopped for morning coffee. At the rear of Honeywood
is Margaret's Pool which is often dry, even during rainy days like
today. This is because Sutton District Water Company sunk some wells
that robbed the pool of its supply (yep - in the 60s!). As a result, a
system was put in place to pump treated water back from the sewage
farm at Goat Bridge along the river bed to feed Carshalton Ponds when
the levels drop.

We used the pedestrian path opposite Wilderness Island to see where
the Carshalton and Croydon branches merge and carried on through the
Watermeads and Ravensbury Park to Morden Hall where we enjoyed free
snacks and drinks courtesy of the council. It had taken a lot longer
than anticipated to cover the southern section so we lunched at the
revitalised Merton Abbey Mills.

I'm never sure if people realise the significance of Merton Priory
which stood on the site until Henry VIII had all the monestries
destroyed and stole the Priory's masonry to build Nonsuch Palace. It
rivalled Westminster Abbey for importance. Henry VI was even crowned
there, the only king to not have his coronation at Westminster for
1000 years. Thomas Becket and Nicholas Brakespeare (the only English
pope) were both educated there and in 1235, Henry III agreed the
Statutes Of Merton, the first Statute in English law after the Magna
Carta. It now houses a craft market whilst the foundations of the old
church are covered by Merantum Way.

We seemed to reach the Thames in no time at all and called into
Leaders Gardens for an afternoon stop. On the way back we retraced our
steps with a small diversion to see the locally infamous Bridge To
Nowhere, part of the originally proposed Wandle Trail but never
completed because the council messed up the negotiations. The bridge
just sticks out over a 10ft drop whilst the sandy path disappears
around a corner, 30m ahead of you.

Most riders started to make their own way home from here. Those
returning to Pollards Hill had 30 miles on the clock. See the pix on
Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157619257201335
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc048

===

PHOTOS FROM LAST WEEK

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jezzer/sets/72157619091952802

===

CTC RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK'S TRAIN PROBLEM

As we are affiliated to CTC, the national cyclists' organisation, I
alerted them to the problems on last week's ride where 13 riders were
booted off the train because it didn't have enough cycle spaces. They
are taking it very seriously and have asked if we can start to collect
specific data, along with Southwark Cyclists, Central London CTC and a
cycle group in Merseyside as we are all regularly putting cyclists on
weekend trains well above their stated capacity, generally without
problem. The data will be used to attempt a policy change by showing
that the trains are regularly catering for a weekend leisure cyclist
market without a problem.

There's a huge irony here too. South West Trains (the company that
kicked us off) are advertising their services as a way for charity
riders to get to Clapham Jct to start the London to Brighton ride in 2
weeks. Their rival train operating company, Southern, have banned
bikes from ALL services on that day as they don't want the hassle of
returning the riders to Clapham......

===

DAY TRIP TO BRISTOL

There are still 2 tickets available for our 2nd Aug big day out to the
Bristol & Bath Railway Path. First come first served. For the benefit
of those new to the list, we're hiring a very plush executive coach
plus a lorry to take ourselves and our bikes to Bristol where we'll
ride to Bath along the original Sustrans route, through the longest
cyclable railway tunnel in the UK and then back again after we've
sightseen Bath and had a bite to eat. You can't do this as a group on
the train because inter-city trains only take 4 bikes. We're offering
a far higher standard of travel for less money than a 3rd class return
on the train. £35 cheque to PHC, posted to me with an SAE secures your
place. Email me if you're interested.

===

A REMINDER

It's important that everyone on a ride is aware of their
responsibilities. I think it's worth repeating those here.

The most important thing you need to do is to be aware of who is
behind you. When we make a turn, you are responsible for ensuring that
the person behind you saw where you went. If that means you have to
stop and wait for them then that's what you need to do. It's no fun
when you pedal off for miles in the wrong direction because nobody
waited for you at the last junction! Fortunately it doesn't happen
very often but there have been some lapses recently.

Your other main responsibility is to ensure we keep the ride moving at
the correct pace. Be ready to move off when the rest of the group
moves and if you are a slower or less confident rider, make sure you
ride directly behind the leader so we can pace the ride better for
you. It doesn't matter if you get overtaken up a hill but we can't
help you if you stay at the back and then drift off where we can't see
you. Conversely, don't try to speed the ride up - PHC rides are
carefully paced so that everyone can enjoy them.

I'm hoping to get the website updated soon and I'll try to include
this information so that newer riders know what to expect as well.

===

RIDE LEADER TRAINING

British Cycling are looking to recruit and train ride leaders for a
series of organised leisure rides (sounds familiar!) There's a pretty
full-on commitment required and I've no idea how good their training
is but it leads to paid work. I will hopefully be signing up but if
anyone else is interested, let me know and I'll help to back up your
application.

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/bcf/News2009/20090527_led_rides.asp

===

BIKE WEEK

Someone asked what we are doing for next week's National Bike Week.
The answer is 'nothing!'. We offer year-round access to our very
do-able rides so we don't need to dream up a scheme to attract new
riders, we do that by continuing to do what we've been doing for the
past 4 years, running our rides pitched at anyone who is fit enough to
ride a bike to work and back.

However, it IS a good scheme and there various local things you can
try out. The website has been considerably improved by the new
commercial owners of the event and you'll find it here:

http://www.bikeweek.org.uk

===

NEW TfL CYCLING WEBSITE

With excellent timing, TfL launched their new cycle website and
emailed all their contacts whilst the PHC link was still on the
homepage!! Not sure if that will bring us good fortune but next to the
Evening Standard, it might well be the best press coverage we've had.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11598.aspx

===

NEXT WEEK

We're going to ride that other South London Sustrans classic, The
Waterlink Way. From South Norwood Country Park, it's a clever
combination of river paths and parks all the way to Greenwich. We'll
be stopping short and hiking uphill to windy Blackheath for the annual
cycling and kite festival. There's a pub overlooking the open green
expanse or I'm sure there'll be food stalls at the event. Back pretty
much the way we came. Leaving from Pollards Hill at 9:30am.

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk
http://www.southlondoncyclists.org.uk