12 Riders turned up at Barton Grange to start our morning run led by Richard Kershaw. The day was a bit grey but very warm and after Richard had cleaned his plug and his bike got push started we turned left from the garden centre and then at the Shell garage turned right off the A6 and headed for Calder Vale. We turned off this road which would have taken us to Oakenclough to get to Barnacre. Here we took the Eidsforth Lane where we caught up with a slow moving tractor and trailer. A mile or so on the tractor turned off and we were free to ride on towards our first stop at the garden centre cafe in Scorton. The sun was now out and we enjoyed a coffee in the gardens for half and hour before re-starting the ride. Well we had to wait a little while for Richard to change his plug again! But we were soon off again heading west up the A586 to St Michaels. Turning off at White House lane we skirted Great Eccleston and rode though Elswick to the A585 junction and headed for Esprick where Richard turned right into Back Lane. A good job Dave was on the ball here as Bob nearly missed the turn and only spotted Dave pointing the way after he had passed the road end. The road her goes round the the back of Greenhalgh and runs parallel to the M55 for a while ending up in Weeton Village. A left turn out of the village took us to Wrea green where we called in at Richard Lancaster’s house to see his collection of machines and bikes. A pre war Matchless and a 1950s Triumph arrived just after us and they were ridden in by a couple of members of the Fleetwood and district VMCC members.
We were all amazed at Richard’s collection of machinery some of which he started up to show us the gas engines doing their thing and a wonderful 1917 motorcycle that runs on Naptha. A lovely old single cylinder Indian was also started for us and ran like a sewing machine. Richard’s wife kindly supplied us all with some tea, coffee and biscuits and some of us went and sat in the glorious sunshine on the green to eat our sandwiches.
At about 2pm the riders departed some going home following Richard and others heading directly home after a lovely morning run out. Thanks a lot to Richard Kershaw for organising it and the Lancasters for hosting us and letting us see the collection.
By Richard
On a nice warm day we met at Barton Grange garden centre, 12 members on 12 AMC bikes. Wow! Nice to see John Roddam on a bike at last. John had only done about 60 miles so he was keeping his fingers crossed! (See later). Richard took us on an interesting route stopping at a posh garden centre/café at Scorton.
After changing/trying every available sparkplug (no names) we set off again for Wrea green to Richard Lancaster’s workshop Richard has a fantastic collection of veteran bikes, stationary engines, bicycles, cars and memorabilia. Richard’s wife Lynda made us welcome with tea and biscuits. It would be hard to pick a favourite but I liked the little 250 MOV Velo. Some amazing bikes, Bradshaw engine PV and Matador as well as several Bradshaw engines on the shelf.
We ate our sandwiches on the Green and Chairman Richard and Phil had to leave for school run duties. We carried on towards Richard’s house but unfortunately John’s engine stopped. Tony diagnosed a stuck exhaust valve. It couldn’t be fixed so John waited for a trailer while we carried on to Richard’s for coffee and scones, served to us by Richard’s wife Jo.
Thanks to Richard for a great day out and to Jo for the scones.
By Dave