A lovely day greeted 13 bikes and 14 riders to the run around South Ribble and West Lancs. It was great to see one of our new members, Roy, out on his first run with us on his 350CS
Tony led us away from Charnock Richards via Euxton to Croston. Then found some of the bumpiest and most un- maintained roads in Britain taking us through Bretherton and Sollom to Mere Brow. Then we drove past the Windmill farm where they were spraying water on the fields, and the road, and some of us got quite wet! Then on past Martin Mere to Scarisbrick and from here into Southport to the Northern end of the Marine lake where we pulled in at the Lakeside Church to stop at their ‘Be Free Coffee House’. A lovely location at the end of the lake with outside seating. The food was very good and very reasonably priced. I took a look through the access gate to the lake and was treated to a pair of Pink Foot geese leading their young goslings along the edge of the lake with a load of inquisitive swans swimming across and following them from the water. A lovely stop for anyone to have lunch in such lovely weather.
From here we joined the promenade and rode all along the beach road where we turned off at Woodvale to get to Haskayne or was it Downholland? I’m not sure where we were but Tony led us to an agricultural engineering farm which he had visited before to get some welding done. Here we met the main man who was a very interesting chap that seemed to be able to make and mend anything. There was a 1930’s HRD on his bench with some cast iron welding being done on its forks and an aluminium chain cover being set up for welding. The workshop was well equipped with a milling machine, Lathe. pillar drill and band saw and all the tools you would expect. Outside the workshop there was a fly press, hydraulic press. guillotine and all sorts of older machines collected together as a sort of museum. A very interesting place for the mechanically minded to visit.
Having looked at all this equipment we thanked him and set off for our final stop at the Farmers arms at Bispham Green.
Shortly after leaving one of the bike stopped and after a few minutes and a plug change we were back on the road only for me to lose sight of Tony after I waited for the others to catch up at a tricky junction. At a cross roads near Lathom I didn’t know which way to go and stopped causing a huge traffic jam but after a few minutes we got back onto the road and followed Dave who knew the area and he led us safely to the Farmers Arms. Here we phoned Tony, who had actually gone back to look for us, but he soon caught up with us to enjoy the ambiance to end a lovely day out on the bikes.
Thanks Tony, a lovely run well planned.
Photos Here https://photos.app.goo.gl/TcCKvMsuAYYhRbMj7