Bob’s Ride to Hollingworth Lake
Eight Riders turned up for this ride on a partly wet morning but it was dry as we started off from the Springwood picnic area at Whalley. Through Padiham and round Burnley we rode towards Todmorden. Here we stopped at the Cotton Weavers Cafe and Museum at Walsden. The museum is actually part of a garden center and the owner has collected a wide range of historic mill machinery, cars and memorabilia from the UK and France. A nice lady booked us in and stored our helmets behind the counter while we were in the museum. At the entrance was a metal dinosaur made from all sorts of car parts which was very well done. Inside I expected to see just mill machinery but there was so much more that weaving machinery. Beyond the weaving and spinning machines were steam engines of various sizes and the mill workshop machines including a very long lathe. On the walls were shelves of memorabilia from the 19th and 20th century and then there were several agricultural machines a tractor and tracked tractor and other farm machinery. A complete forge with the hand bellows and all the tools a blacksmith would use was built into the back wall. Then we came to the cars and trucks from the late 19th century up to the 20th century Many were French as the owner had apparently collected them on his trips to France.
Our visit to the museum ended as it was lunch time and we departed and went into the cafe where the food and service was very good.
At about 2 pm we left the cafe, collected the helmets and started the bikes to leave but one bike failed by running on one cylinder and not wanting to rev. The bike was pushed into the car park opposite for diagnosis and repair. After about an hour of deliberation and much head scratching it seemed the fault was caused by a complete battery failure. After discussion a battery from another bike was fitted and the bike came back to life and as the donor bike was a magneto ignition machine all were able to continue the ride.
As we approached Hollingworth we found the road was closed so we all turned round to follow Bob on an alternative route but as we had lost a lot of time Bob decided to miss out the lake and led us over to Hebden Bridge and along The Widdop Road Up to Widdop Reservoir, down to Thursden and Brierfield to Sabden and back to Whalley where we arrived at about 4:30pm and had a rest before all setting off on our various ways home.
A very good run and museum and some great team efforts in keeping one bike running.
Thanks to Bob for the planning and leading.