Beacon mini tour to Coalport, 23 to 24 April 2024 – Dave Cole
Back in April, six Beacon members undertook an overnight tour to YHA Ironbridge Coalport. Here’s Dave Cole’s write-up of the trip…
On Tuesday 23 April, a cold drizzly morning, six elderly gentlemen set off from Barnt Green on a two-day cycle tour. This was organised by Alan Weaver and our destination was the Ironbridge Gorge Old People’s Home, otherwise known as YHA Ironbridge Coalport. The first thing I noticed was the different luggage riders were carrying, from Paul Balfe who carried enough luggage for a world tour, Neil Evanson who had the complete set of designer bike-packing kit, Alan Weaver and Nigel Douglas who used the asymmetric single-loaded pannier system, to the minimalist Rob Parker who had a single small pannier with a pair of flip-flops strapped to the top (the kind you get free from a dodgy massage parlour).
The first part of the outward trip was through Catshill, Droitwich and over the River Severn at Holt Fleet. This route was reasonably flat on well-known roads. We had our first café stop after 25 miles at Broomfield’s, where the waitress insisted on having our table number even though we were the only ones sitting outside. So far, our route had been westerly but now we started to swing round to the north, heading towards Bridgnorth. We encountered our first big hill at Great Witley – a taste of the rest of the day’s riding. |There was then a steady five-mile drag up to Clows Top, then one hill after another until Far Forest. This is where Alan made a navigational error, taking us the wrong way through Wyre Forest, but as Alan said, this didn’t matter because we would be doing a couple more miles and it added an extra hill to the trip.
We then had a fairly lumpy ride through Stottesdon, Sidbury and Chelmarsh, stopping at Astbury Golf Club Just outside Bridgnorth. With 58 miles under our belts and only 10 miles to go, we all felt pretty relaxed about the rest of the ride. However, ahead of us were three very long climbs and just as we were approaching the top of the last climb into Broseley, with only a long descent into Coalport, Alan decided to take us on a three mile, heavily pot-holed gravel track, just for “a bit of fun” (his words, not mine). We arrived at Coalport YHA at 17:00, having covered 70 miles. This was a very good YHA, situated in an old chinaware factory in a very interesting area surrounded by industrial archaeology.
Day two was a dry bright but very cool day. It started with a very long, steep ride up Sutton Bank. I decided to take a flat 20-mile ride into Wolverhampton and catch the train home. Alan took the others on a meandering route through Staffordshire just so that they could climb any hill that they may have missed on the outward journey. I’m told that the highlight of the return route was very steep climb up a sand-filled gully where riding was impossible, but everyone enjoyed Alan videoing them struggling through the sand, pushing their heavily laden bikes.
This was about the fifth mini tour I have been on, all of them ridden at a fairly slow pace and very enjoyable!
Our previous report covers a somewhat longer tour, along the length of New Zealand. Check out Pete Warwick’s account here.