Join me on a small part of my penny farthing ride around Cheshire, including a stop at St Helen church to look at a tree sculpture and some headstones and then on to an old phone box, one which use to be common place along the roads of Britain but now only about 19 remain. Along the way I will tell you some historical details of the places I stop at.
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greetings and welcome. You may have realized that there’s been no uh introduction on this video nor a route what I’m planning to do today. There’s a simple reason for that. I’m not sure which route I’m going to take. Uh, I know it’s going to be a long one. I’m doing 35 to 40 miles today. Uh, probably not the best day to do a long ride. It looks like it’s uh going to be the hottest day of the year so far. Anyway, I thought while I’m uh going through look at the canal barge over there. Picture there’s no canal nearby. Anyway, like I was saying as I’m riding along here, seeing it’s a bit quiet. I thought I would have some more practice with my extendable pole on the camera and uh let you enjoy the countryside. Oh, the views of the countryside. One of the things about the penny far usually set up so high that you can see over the hedges. Yeah, there’s no hedges here though. Uh but a nice day for a nice ride. as long as it don’t get too hot later on. There’s a couple of places I’m going to call that today. One’s coming up in just under a mile now, but uh the other one’s a bit further away. That’s why I’m uh going to be doing a long distance. So, enjoy the view and uh I’ll get back talking to you in a bit. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, I must say that last that last 100 200 yards, it doesn’t seem much of a hill when you look at it, but it does always uh slow me down on this ride. Uh, also when you were watching, I hope you noticed how I’ve got to keep changing my hand position on the pole and uh passing it from one hand to the other. I sometimes wonder if I should start juggling while I’m riding the penny file. I think it might be a bit easier. So, the first place we’re coming up to here, uh, this is our first stopping point for today anyway. There we are on the left and just behind the uh fences. And the church ahead is St. Helen Church. No S on the end. Although a few times I do keep saying there’s an Nest there in uh Hollings Green or Hollings Fur. And uh this is the cemetery or the graveyard for the church which we’re going to pay a visit in uh and have a look [Music] around. In the far corner of the uh graveyard, there’s Adra. what had been chopped down. And they’ve made a nice little cool sculpture of the uh tree trunk. So, let’s go and have a look at that. First of all, I’m trying to approach uh very slowly and quietly because there’s a couple of squirrels on the trunk. There goes one. Uh oh. Nope. It looks like I’ve scared them both away. But, uh what do you think? Couple of foxes on a uh tree trunk. Don’t Well, you know, I like a walk around a church graveyard or a cemetery, don’t you? Oh, this is one here, which uh I rode past quite a few times, but never called in. So, uh today I thought I’d call in and see if there’s any unusual headstones to uh look at. But, uh it’s a warm day. I’m about 9 and a half miles into my ride. So, uh, it’s drinks time space. I think the bike’s just, uh, collapsed as well. You like it? Souvenir for my adventures last year. So, let’s have a look what headstones we’ve got around here. Like I said, it’s only smallish uh, churchyard. You can see most of it hopefully. And uh we uh head sh took me water bottle away. Head down. I don’t know if you can see the uh car car on top of the uh headstone there. Jaguar. And there’s quite a few headstones. I’ve seen if you look at the one there that looks like a farmer’s field at harvest time there’s quite a few like that around here one with a train on it Stuart Sherlock on a motorbike. I’ve only seen a couple of uh come war graves uh headstones here. Simon Anis is it 2009 that be Afghanistan. Ah tractor again. Well, we are in a bit of a farmer’s uh area. So the farmer’s field and the tractor and wandering there with the uh beach. Okay. So any more comealth war graves? I know there is one uh over in that direction somewhere from the first world war 1915. I take it we’re now heading into the older part of the cemetery as the uh headstones are looking a bit older. Ah, there’s the Comrave one over there. had a look at it on the way past. Uh I’ll put the details on later on. I can’t remember the name of the [Music] person. That looks like an unusual one with the angel’s wings and the cross in the middle. Can’t remember seeing one like that before. And down here we’ve got one with the urn and the veil. In loving memory of William, the beloved husband of Anne Dande is 62. In 1921, 62 would be uh not a great age, but a decent age. Anyway, that’s the uh quick walk through St. Helen’s Church in Holland’s fur. So, time to uh get the high wheeler rolling. Uh I’m actually going over Wolverton Bridge again. And I know the traffic lights are still on at the top, so that could be a bit of a uh hindrance to get over. But there’s a place I want to call that. And there’s also, you remember one of the videos I showed you about the uh difficulties and obstacles of riding a bike or riding a penny faring? Well, there’s one coming up and I think I got about four difficulties all in the same place, but that’s to come shortly. See you soon. Now, I did say that there’s a a few problems up here for me to negotiate and uh the traffic light’s the first one, but as I said, that is one of the first of a few. And usually I have to uh dismount to get through all these. The lights are not going to change for me because there’s another set of lights though. No, I’m going up to [Music] dismount. You got traffic coming from that way, that way, that way, all over the place. Uh, and there’s a bit of a tunnel as well or a bridge I’ve got to get underneath. The lights are on green properly, but uh the problem is the next set of lights aren’t on green long enough for me to get through the uh tunnel, but not usually. They seem to have altered them. All right, they’re known to rumba. And on the other side of this uh little bridge or tunnel, there is an incline. So, if I walk through the tunnel, I’ve then got to get back on the bike going up a hill, which isn’t easy for me. But, uh, I think I might actually try and get through on the green light. I’ve never made it before. It’s a bit like the, uh, bridge at Leort in Ashley. I’ve got to get through very quick before the traffic starts coming the other way, but we’ll see what happens. The other cars coming didn’t exactly uh let me have a good start. A bit damp, but uh you actually I normally walk through, but then I got to get back on going up this hill. So, I’ve know that now you’ve got about a mile and a half up this uh little gradient. So, I’ll see you at the top. Bye-bye for now. Greetings and welcome. I’m up to about the 17 mile mark today ride. I’ve got 17 to go back and we’ll just wait till this uh object goes past us. We look up in the sky. That might give you uh some idea where I am today. [Music] No one left. The motor bike was making more noise on the plane. But where I am today, you look behind me. If you remember the video I did a few months back about four boxes, uh well, most of the ones I saw were K6 for boxes. Well, the one here isn’t. It’s a completely different type. Like I said behind me, you have a quick look. A4box 372. No, I’m not in heartbeat country. I’ve uh ventured into posh Cheshure area. So like I say, I’ve got 17 mi to go back. Unless I take the long way, then it’s worth 22. So I better get that high wheel rolling. [Music]