Cycling Tour Of English Chocolate Box Villages

A very pleasant 32 mile bike ride through some North Yorkshire villages, including Womersley, Kirk Smeaton, Wentbridge and Ackworth. I visit the War Horse memorial in Featherstone, Pontefract castle and Pontefract park. The psychology of buying a bike is explored as well as the history of Pontefract cakes.

The Sun shone and the wind blew 🤣

Hi, welcome back to sunny West Yorkshire. Oh, we’re about to go into North Yorkshire. Actually, North Yorkshire. We’re to the east of Darington heading for Kirkmeen and Wsley. Come and have a look. [Music] Wasley, we’re past the A1 junction, so it’s a bit quieter now. Can enjoy the little villages, of which there are many. But from Pontifra, you are very quickly out into the countryside. I love this corner. So, wasn’t built for modern traffic. Morning. Morning. Nice tea room there. The fig and olive. Bit early yet. It’s not quite 8:00. [Music] So, I shall honor the poll and we’ll do a little bit of psychology today about sales and a bit of local history of Pontiffract and the surrounding areas. Oh, yeah. Looks like a left towards Walden Stubs. Adds a couple of miles onto this. And it’s quiet. Always gets my attention around here that the fields are full of crops. You don’t get that in Poland. The fields in Poland are full of animals. But that’s partly because of the history of pontifact. Rich, fertile soil, especially good for growing licorice. Is it licorice or licorice? Licorice. The famous ingredient of pontiff cakes, which I don’t like. That’s why they make pontiff cakes in pontiff. Ideal growing conditions for the crop. It’s educational, isn’t it? Today, [Music] Little Smeen, which leads to Kirkme Kirk because I think it has a church. But turn left here over the gravel. [Music] I like place names. Place names are good. Preston was the priest’s town, apparently. Long Ridge, fairly obvious if you get a view of it from afar. It’s a little town at the end of a long ridge. Blackpool, named after the famous Well of Despair, where the football fans spend a lot of their time. Just kidding. I made that up. I love you, Blackpool. Oh, I won’t cry. You’ll find it in the deep. He’s energetic, in he singing. Find it in the deepest fringe. It’s a West life song. I’m going to head west towards Wentbridgeidge, but this road up here is close to cars. Let’s see if bikes can get through Brockadale Woods down to the right. Nice walk down there with a nice pub at the end of it, the shoulder of Mutton. We just cycled past. They used to come out with free sandwiches on the weekend. Do they still do that? let me know. So, if you wondered why there was always traffic around Darington on the A1, now you know, down to one lane. It’s moving though. It’s moving. Well, as the road is closed, it’s nice and quiet. We’ll do another bit of psychology, the psychology of buying with a worked example. So the first part is identifying or becoming aware of a need or a want. In my case, I wanted a bike that would do rough stuff, road stuff, get panax on, potentially a bit of bike touring. Basically, something that would do lots of things relatively well. So that was stage one, a need or a desire. Stage two, fun bit, do your research. So I had look at loads of different bikes within my price point. And then the third part is comparing the alternatives. And I was looking at these, so gravel bikes. And I also looked at hard tail mountain bikes. And I almost bought an on whip it, but I couldn’t find one in my size. So I left it for a few weeks. And then I saw that this had come down in price. It’s got Shimano 105, gets good reviews. I’m going to buy this. So I did. And then finally, you do something called post-purchase behavior, which is where you read even more reviews to convince yourself that you bought the right thing. So there you go, the psychology of sales. Got a nice descent now into Wembridge. Be a bit careful on this one. [Music] It’s nice around here. And we’re going to go left down more lane. Almost done with more lane. [Music] So, Pontifrat over to my right, Upton, wherever to my left. I’m not sure if the GoPro will pick out the water tower. I expect it will. And straight in front, East Hardwick. So, we’ll get down here, cross over the road, and take the nice, quiet, sneaky way to Aquith. [Music] What a lovely day. [Music] Welcome to East Hardwick. Do you know what? It’s nice around here. So, we got to the end of East Hardwick, crossed the busy main road onto Sandy Gate Lane, which is, as you can see, not a busy main road. It’s really quite nice. There’s the water tower. somehow looks bigger from uh a long way away, but it isn’t that big. This is Aqua. And you know what? It’s nice around here. Hi. Yeah. This is Pen or Pur Jagglin on my right. That’s Pen Park. It’s a windy one today again. [Music] We’re now in a rather windy old Snidale. Proper windy now. Where’s that come from? I just tried to find what used to be Normington Golf Course before they moved it to Hatfield Hall. It’s gone. There’s no sign of it. It’s houses. Well, I saw a sign that said footpath to Aton. Oh, let’s have a look. [Music] Over there is what used to be Achen Hospital. It’s now a housing estate. I’m sensing a trend. Still a nice day for a bike ride, though. It’s a Tuesday morning. We’re in July now. It’s about 10 11. I’ve done 28 miles. About 1,400 ft of climbing somewhere. Nice flat white stop in Normington. down Parkside past Pontiff Golf Club and we’ll have a look at Pontifrack Castle. Road you can see over there is the M62. [Music] It looks like they’re getting ready for a meet Ponty Racers. Lots of activity at Pontiff Park. It would appear that today is indeed race day. Might place some bets. Might bob back down. Actually, it’s a nice day for the races. [Music] So, here we go. the sight of what was Ponttofrat Castle. As you can see, there’s not much of it left. It was actually pulled down by the people of Pontiffract years ago. It kept the tracks in trouble. So, he who holds Pontiffract holds the key to the north. It was a very important castle for a long time, but like I said, it kept attracting trouble to Pontifra, so the people pulled it down. Fair play to the people. It would have been quite impressive in its day. I’ll put a picture on. You can have a look. [Music] [Music] That’s the buttercross. We’ll take the scenic route through the Valley Gardens, I think. [Music] Right, I’m off. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you on the next one. Bye-bye.