To the canoes! …was the rally cry come Saturday morning as @AnnaJCowen and I decided to sea test the kayaks that make us feel like we are proper sailing types.
Ahem.
Having bought a couple of basic entry level models from a rather charming sailing shop just outside of Clactonia, a whole month has passed where they have been sitting in the dry dock that doubles up as a back garden.
Whoops.
Time and tide, ‘n all that, and bugger me - we’ve not exactly been blessed of late with a tidal pattern that can be easily accommodated into a weekday and weekend working pattern.
A detailed study of the tidal charts and a consultation of the shipping forecast the night before (I lie - high tide for Brightlingsea - there’san appfor that…) and we were scheduled to be sea bound shortly after 1pm on Saturday.
But first how to get the beasts down to the Quay? This has been occupying my mind a lot of late. It’s not quite on par with a Middle East peace proposal, but warfare of sorts broke out around the regions of Park Road on Saturday.
Apologies to m’neighbours - the girl and I got in a strop over straps. The Rolls Royce of kayak trolleys had been bought, but the small print overlooked attaching the kayaks to the rock ‘n roll wheels.
No worries. A trip to B & Q and some industrial strength ratchet ties were ours for the taking. But not for the tying. We bodged a solution of sorts, and then fell flat on our feet before we even hit the Colne Social Club.
Back to basics it was, and we resorted to the good old-fashioned backbreaking method of carrying the canoes by the handles down to the Sailing Club. The High Street was well off our radar - no one wants to see a feuding couple encased in tight black rubber with additional S & M cable straps wandering past the Deli on a Saturday lunchtime.
Anglesea Road was a pain, but the pleasure was all to come once we hit the water. Wivenhoe is surprisingly short on slipways - there’s either the old Sailing Club entry point by the Ferry launch, or out towards the barrier and the current Sailing Club location.
It was to our very good fortune that just as the champagne bottles were smashed against the hull (not as a symbolic gesture, but as something of a tonsil tickler before hitting the water) we encountered another canoeing couple.
Cripes.
Tips were exchanged, black bondage was mutually admired.
And then we were water bound.
Blimey.
I potted about in canoes as a youth, thinking that a bright red phallic fibreglass body would aid my sexual chances. I know how to control my wrist action, especially so when sitting in an unnatural position.
It was to my great joy then to relive this moment of frisson from my youth, making those first few strokes into the muddy water of the Colne and drifting dangerously close to the flood barrier.
I looked back at the girl and found that she hadn’t even managed to wriggle free of the slipway. I’ve always doubted her technique, to be honest.
It may be a beast to carry down to the Quay, but the kayak glides like an absolute beauty once you are in the water. Observing Wivenhoe from a low water level provides a stunning new perspective.
You can of course get over-romanticised about a bloody canoe, but there was a great sense of history approaching the town from the water, something that generations of folk in Wivenhoe have been accustomed to.
Soon we were paddling past the Rose and Crown, onwards along the side of West Quay and then a sharp left up the Roman River. Fingringhoe had to be done, and preferably so before the already outgoing tide stranded us.
Five minutes up the twist and curves of the Roman River, and the North Essex aquatic nature totally immerses you. Thankfully no baptisms took place along the muddy waters of the North Essex estuary on Saturday afternoon.
Various birdlife accept you as part of their environment, flying incredibly close along the water and offering up spectacular viewing points. The Pisces within was a one happy man in a canoe. Meanwhile the Libra that is @AnnaJCowen was struggling to balance her boat, let alone her astrological scales.
We actually got lost up the Roman River - how is that possible? I’m not entirely sure, but we also managed to get lost along the Wivenhoe Trail the first time that we cycled it. The welcoming tower of St Mary’s was our guiding principle back to base.
A brief paddle upstream towards Rowhedge, and then a drift along with the outgoing tide back to the Sailing Club. Saturday afternoon tea was calling, as well as a hot shower. The Colne really is very mucky little pup.
And so a success of sorts. The struggle with the canoes back to base ‘aint great. We’re exploring other options (*cough* Sailing Club membership…)
But yeah - footloose and fancy free to explore the Colne, the Creek and all the many tributaries in-between. Any excuse to become encased in thick, black rubber.
A steamy and sultry wander back towards Wivenhoe early on Monday morning - don’t ask - perfect for capturing the midsummer haze, just as it was starting to settle along the muddy banks of the Colne.
This short stretch continues to amaze me each morning. Having commuted (of sorts) along the Trail for almost nine months, a day doesn’t go by when I fail to notice something new.
Nature has a remarkable way of uprooting and surpassing all that has grown before. This process is accelerated especially around this wonderful midsummer time of the year.
Yeah - I’m turning into an old hippy.
It can’t be long before I put on the wetsuit and forsake the morning indoor swim for a muddy Colne dip. I keep on picking up advice - some sound, some just plain silly.
Just Do It, Jase.
The slideshow above serves as the companion piece to accompany my bicycle ride up the Trail towards the Hythe. Cycling / walking / swimming along the North Essex estuary wilds - THIS is exactly why we moved out to these parts.
A weekend downpour of Biblical proportions, which can only mean that it’s time for the summer publication of Wivenhoe News.
Blimey.
Sea Defences Saga Flows On is the lead story.
See what they’ve done there?
“There has been much anger and dismay caused by the stripping of vegetation from the seawalls in Wivenhoe alongside our tidal river, both downstream and upstream from the flood barrier.”
The bad science justification that was bungled out by the Environment Agency is also re-published, as is a very kind plug for *cough* the Wivenhoe Forum thread.
What’s new here is the offer by the Natural England - the spineless body that rubber stamped the destruction - to re-plant 5,000 “compensatory trees” - you break our legs and we say thank you when you offer us crutches.
Eight hundred and fifty have been put aside for the North Essex estuary. Don’t go getting your digging spades out just yet, Comrades:
“In the Colne Estuary they [Natural England] have provided 850 small tress to Brightlingsea Town Council for a site to the east of the town.”
If you stand at White House Beach on a clear estuary morning, and then squint out over the water with one eye closed, you may just be able to see the benefits of the trees bestowed upon our beloved Brothers in Brightlingsea.
Cheers.
No worries. What we need is a smiling picture of a lovely local lady to add some cheer to the sea defence doom:
“Workers of Wivenhoe - Shelia Scammell, Lollipop Lady.”
Lovely.
Wivenhoe May Fair 2011 gets the p.2 treatment, in something of an after the Lord Mayor’s Show airing. Time to move on, time to plan and time to restore May Fair as a community event for 2012.
Speaking of Mayor’s, Cllr Sinclair is captured in one of his final acts of civic duty in what has been a busy year. The Guide’s Wedding Party is all part of wearing the Wivenhoe civic chains.
But it’s not all about the Brownies or Girl Guides. On a more serious note, there is a plea on p.2 for a new Scout Leader for Wivenhoe:
“Let’s not beat about the bush: twenty youngsters, full of energy and enthusiasm [and then some] raring to take up the opportunity offered by the Scouting movement.”
This is a BIG role that really needs filling. The Wivenhoe News editorial on p.3 plays with similar themes:
“Off the Rails seems to be looking for pretty much a whole new team, the Wivenhoe Society is limping along with no Secretary and a very small committee, the WEA has been without a Chair for a year and is about to lose its Secretary.
One of the things that you often here in praise of Wivenhoe is ‘there’s so much going on here.’ Well folks - things only happen because people organise them.”
Wise word, but maybe it is a reflection of the work / life balance? There are only so many hours in the day and bills still need to be paid. It’s no secret that I have had to severely cut back on my out of hour’s unpaid activity of late.
On a more lighter note and any news article that contains the phrase: “superb French folk music, played on hurdy-gurdies [geddin there!] and bagpipes” has to be a winner. The Town Meets Gown event gets a mention on p.3.
Dr Philippa Hawley and Halcyon Palmer pen a simply superb local historical account on the various Wivenhoe surgeries dating back over the past Century. It is apt timing, what with the STOP / START / STOP farce of the new Wivenhoe surgery by the Fire Station continuing to stall.
I’m not going to re-publish any of the copy here - this article is worthy of your purchase of Wivenhoe News alone. More of the same please.
The Two Ronnies of Wivenhoe local politics, Cyril Liddy and Dave Purdey, are given the It’s Goodbye From Me, and It’s Goodbye From Him headline.
With sixteen and eight years respectively serving as unpaid Town Councillors, both Cyril and Dave are rightfully given a short column to say a fond farewell.
Of sorts…
Along with Sheila Scammell and her lovely Lollipop Lady tales on p.8, Alison Kent also carries an ACE interview with Ray the Rubbish, the retiring litter picker of Wivenhoe:
“I think you should try to keep the front of your property clean, like the old days. Have pride in where you live.”
Hear, hear.
I didn’t realise that the job was only fourteen hours a week - Ray has seemed to be ever-present during my short stay here. Good luck to James, Ray’s replacement.
Aquatic matters are the concern on p.11. Lifeboat Week gets a deserved plug, as does the Wivenhoe branch of the Royal British Legion:
“Remembrance is a very large part of the Legion’s ethos. Those who attend the Legion Wednesday evenings will know that those who have given their lives in Afghanistan and other places in the service of their nation are individually remembered.”
The building fund for the Legion has been boosted by a donation of over £2,000 from the Boxing Day walk staged by WORC. £690 was also raised at the ACE fireworks display. October 29th is already in the calendar for one of the best nights that Wivenhoe is able to offer.
Next door but one at The Nottage and there is a plug for Water Marks - the Summer Exhibition, featuring local artists Alison Stockmarr, Barbara Peirson and Pru Green.
The exhibition is open on Sundays from 2pm - 5pm until 11th September, and on Regatta Day on 23rd July. It is VERY good. There’s a blog post already being lined up…
Speaking of the Regatta, Wivenhoe News reports:
“There will be the usual wacky races and about thirty stalls and a brass band. The pram race will take place on 22nd July.”
Wivenhoe Youth Hub continues to grow and develop new ideas and partnerships. Page 12 updates with reports on the gig at the Philip Road Centre by local band Rising Soul, a go-karting event organised with Brightlingsea’s 4Youth (reckon we got the better name…) as well as the ACEarchery and rowing evening.
What is rather humbling about The Hub is that those involved offer so much more back into the community. There was a considerable presence at the WivSoc riverbank clean up, help offered at May Fair, as well as support for the Crabbing Competition next month down by the Quay.
Likewise good news coming out of the ADP Theatre School:
“Angie Diggens has booked the Colchester Charter Hall for a show with her Wivenhoe students, combining the best of her last two shows at Clacton.”
Saturday 25th June at 7:30pm, £12 a ticket, details on 282020.
Helen Chambers writes a review of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of Oklahoma! at the Loveless Hall:
“The singing was faultless, the whole cast strong and talented.”
And keeping with the Wivenhoe artistic feel, Andy Brooke writes a well-deserved homage to Moving Image:
“It’s great to see people you know in the audience and have a genuine community atmosphere, rather than renting a DVD at home.”
Further details of the Moving Image summer schedule are up on m’blog over here.
The rock ‘n roll rollicking rollercoaster ride that is Radio Wivenhoe (blimey) get a plug on p.14, as does a call for “journalists, bloggers and poets” for Off the Rails. The Wivenhoe Poetry Prize looks forward to the 2011 results as part of the poetrywivenhoe evening at The Greyhound on the 23rd June. Meanwhile a new University of the Third Age art group is starting at the Loveless Hall on 14th September.
All ‘appening - all ‘appening I tell ya.
The good folk of Wivenhoe Bookshop have an entire page to plug future activity, such is the depth of the programme that is on offer. Too much to condense into a throwaway blog paragraph - my suggestion would be to head to the Bookshop for a perusal and a polite chat.
Open Gardens on p.16 is caught between the publishing deadline and the sheer splendour that was the most splendid event this spring. It remains the highlight to date of My Year in Wivenhoe - wonderful, wonderful community spirit and pleasure.
Keeping it green fingered and Wivenhoe Bloom explain a little more about the brilliant use of dead space on the Wivenhoe Triangle that is overlooked by the Co-op, the opticians and Jardine:
“The site belongs to Highways - it’s classed as a verge - but WTC has a licence to plant. Jardine has contributed a very generous donation of £250 towards the cost of materials and plants.”
I have no shame in plugging local businesses that put something back into the community. An excellent gesture and kind contribution, Cristian. Jolly good work, Jardine.
The Parish Paths Partnership column penned by Helen Evans on p.16 puffs out a huge PHEW after finding out that Essex County Council continues to support the hyperlocal initiative.
Three Wivenhoe rights of way have been worked on by P3 to day: the side of Broomgrove Schools, the back of the houses in Broome Grove and the path along the top of the sea wall - you might have already heard about the latter…
So successful is the Wivenhoe P3 project that the group has now become a roving project. It is the A-Team of parish paths partnerships. If you have a problem with some overgrown bramble around the North Essex estuary, this crack team of cleaners should be first on your To Call list.
Cripes.
The joyous news coming out of p.17 and the WAGA update is:
“Spring is finally here.”
Hurrah!
Mayor Needham (woh!) explains more about the recent Beating the Bounds walk around Wivenhoe:
“The tradition of beating the bounds came from a time when no one, except the rich, could leave the parish without permission. It was a method of ensuring that local youngsters knew the limits of their parish.
It involved choir boys, the Parish Clerk and clergymen, leaving from the church armed with wands or sticks.”
Splendid. Soft lot, nowadays. The tradition was restored on 5th June this year. No young child was hurt in reviving this most excellent local tradition.
Wivenhoe bird watcher supreme Richard Allen explains very helpfully the difference between swifts, swallows and martins on p.18. Recent local sightings include:
“Nightingales have arrived in good numbers with a particularly vocal bird near the railway underpass along the Trail. Butterflies have enjoyed the good early weather.”
The ever-observant @AnnaJCowen (blimey) has also spotted a Jay along the Trail.
It all gets rather saucy at the foot of p.18 with Spoons, Spurtles and Spatulas.
Oh Lordy.
“Members of the Wivenhoe Woods Working Party recently attended a day’s course in green woodworking. Instruction was given on how to turn wood on a pole lathe and make spoons and other utensils using knives and a shave horse.”
Phew.
A Personal View of Transition Town Wivenhoe by the good Bob Mehew on p.19:
“I considered Wivenhoe a good place for a Transition Town: strong community spirit; a great awareness of climate change, environmental and sustainability issues; a willingness to get involved, to learn, to educate, to participate.”
TTW continues to grow and innovate. Wivenhoe is all the better for it.
The Wivenhoe Townscape Forum (*not* the Wivenhoe Forum…) gets a deserved article on p. 19:
“There is much in Wivenhoe of historic interest. There are 73 buildings in the town which are included in the English Heritage list of buildings of national interest.
The local list of historic assets is being carried out with the support of WTC and WivSoc, in order to list some of the best historical features of Wivenhoe which have not yet been recognised so that they do not become forgotten in the huge amount of new building and development.”
Bill Ellis writes a brilliant personal account of life at Cook’s Shipyard when the order books were full, with comparisons of the modern day site. Photos of the new jetty accompany this on p.22.
We return to the seawall clearance on p.24 with Peter Kennedy, the esteemed Editor of Wivenhoe News, explaining the depth of debate that this has delivered:
“We have received many pages of emails and submissions, and I shall attempt some sort of overview.”
A summary of comments and complaints follow. The consensus is that the Environment Agency has been crap at communication.
Fine work then from Wivenhoe News, which has put some direct Q’s to the EA, and received some rather direct answers:
“Q: Were any badgers found during the Wivenhoe work?
A: No - there were no badgers found for the Wivenhoe work.
Q: Are any of the proposed sites for compensatory replanting located in the Wivenhoe area?
A: No. Wivenhoe Marsh has found to be unsuitable.”
That’s what happens when you rip the entire natural habitat out, fellas.
Whoops.
The Surgery Saga Grinds On is the p.25 message from Bernard Jenkin, MP. Nothing to do with your national coalition NHS policy, I trust, Sir?
To be fair to the MP for Harwich and North Essex, our Conservative colleague airs a sense of frustration over the continued delay:
“The Government’s decision to review its health legislation raises the immediate concern that the new Wivenhoe GP surgery will be beset by even more uncertainty. There is no case for this. There is no excuse for further delays, and I have made this clear to the CE of the PCT.”
Speaking of the impact of coalition policies on a hyperlocal level, p.26 explains more about the £9k (!!!!) tuition fees that @Uni_of_Essex proposes to introduce.
Some PR fluff from the University is then re-printed. Twenty-one summers ago and I was fishing around for a University place. £9k (or the inflationary equivalent) would have put me off considerably. I wouldn’t have heard of Wivenhoe. I wouldn’t have moved here.
Oh how fickle is the Invisible Hand that pushes and prongs us through the life’s great adventures.
Blimey.
Town and Gown fiscal relations are restored with news of the £2,200 raised at November’s dinner at the Nottage, and now handed over as a bursary to five grateful local Wivenhoe students.
Broomgrove Infants updates on p.28 with reports of the Royal Wedding celebrations; Broomgrove Juniors explain more about the Outside / In project with Slack Space in Colchester.
Celebrations also at Millfields - a fond farewell to Angela Eglington after twenty-five years of teaching, as well as the school’s very own 30th birthday.
WivSoc rightfully reflects on the success of the riverbank clean up, with seventy volunteers stepping forward to help clean up the Colne. The sad winding up of the Wivenhoe Youth Theatre is lamented, with more positive news coming from the Colne School Choir’s recent performance in Wivenhoe.
Councillor Sinclair reflects upon his past year of civic service wearing the gold chain on p.30:
“I would have like to have seen a healthy election this year as we are entitled to 13 Councillors. Sadly there were only eleven candidates, hence no WTC election.”
Plus:
“A planning application has been lodged to demolish the St John Ambulance Hall for replacement with a privately owned project. I am part of a project to save the building. A group of people have come together, with funds, to keep it as a usable community facility.”
Mayor Needham writes on p.30 about the challenges that lay ahead for his administration:
“The proposed medical centre, a future for the former police station; reaching a satisfactory conclusion to the planning gains associated with the Cook’s Yard development and keeping an eye on the gains that maybe derived from any further development.”
The local politicos were caught cold ahead of publication deadlines. Columns from Essex County Councillor Julie Young, Colchester Borough Councillors Steve Ford and Mark Cory, were all penned before the re-election of the latter two.
Great fun to watch from the sidelines, mind.
On the sporting front and Wivenhoe Tennis Club has a call for new members; Andrew Nightingale, the Chair of the Wivenhoe and District Sporting Facilities Trust is also asking for help - financial help - for Broad Lane. Anymore updates on the mystery Mr X and his millions?
And to finish on some hyperlocal happiness - Wivenhoe Helping Hands publishes a rather humble piece, explaining more about the volunteer work of this organisation and how it is genuinely helping folk around the town.
Wivenhoe News is sold at the Co-op, Crossways, the Post Office, Bryans Newsagents and the lovely Wivenhoe Bookshop.
You may remember how the excuse of protecting the sea wall from burrowing rabbits (nope - me neither) was put up as the justification for the savage destruction of our beautiful local walkways. Strange then that the diggers left in place the roots of the rosehips, blackberry and hawthorn bushes.
Unlike the Environment Agency, Mother Nature has all the answers when it comes to the natural way of protecting our environmental heritage. A Mediterranean month of April in Wivenhoe (steady) and the first signs are starting to show of re-growth along the walkway past the Sailing Club and out towards the Creek.
Even the manufactured marshland - the mess made by the digger’s caterpillar tyres - is starting to heal. No sign of re-growth here, but at least the mud has hardened and looks slightly more pleasant on the eye.
Heading back in the opposite direction towards the Hythe, and it is a similar celebratory spring story along the Wivenhoe Trail. The Environment Agency decided to butcher the bushes all the way down to the University Quays accommodation, leaving a very exposed and bleak landscape.
Now I’m not great identifier of all that is good and green (um, it’s grass, isn’t it?) but some rather charming weeds with white flowers are now lining either side of the Trail out of the wooded area, three, four deep, greeting you as though you are Royalty as you cycle along.
Which is some ways, Comrades, we all are, of course.
The next challenge is to make sure that the Environment Agency isn’t given the opportunity to devastate our landscape with such ease ever again. A formal letter of warning (and it was a bloody warning) was sent to Wivenhoe Town Council last August, ahead of the vandalism.
This was slept on, with the diggers surprising councillors, and locals, with the unannounced speed of the devastation some six months later. I like to think that having seen the reaction to the folly of this mass enforced policy, Wivenhoe won’t give the diggers such an easy ride, should they return around these parts once again.
Now then - keep it a secret, but *shhh* - I’ve found a supply of hawthorns that should be ripe with rosehips in six months time. Don’t tell the Environment Agency; do tell however those nice folk from Transition Town Wivenhoe who are putting together a Free Fruit Map of the area.
With Bike Week approaching in just over a month’s time, now is the perfect opportunity to make sure that your boneshaker is fit and ready for all the splendid Sunny Colch cycling action taking place throughout June.
Wivenhoe folk wanting a little mechanical assistance can get a free safety check this Sunday, when the ace Dr Bike rolls into the town. The good Doctor (of de-railers?) will be positioned perfectly at the Wivenhoe end of the Trail between 10am and 2pm this Sunday (24th.)
There is often a lot of unnecessary cycling snobbery that goes with bike shops. Sometimes it really is All About the Bike, and sometimes it isn’t actually that difficult to fix what may look like a lost cause on your boneshaker.
This is way Dr Bike comes in to advise, and to hopefully get you saddle bound once again. There is no such thing as a bad bike (well, maybe if you buy a cheapo effort from some of the hideous High Street chain stores…) - just a fixable bike.
After the FREE service, Dr Bike will also be able to offer a 10% voucher for any servicing that may be needed.
Here at Keep Colchester Cycling and we think that is worthy of posting up again the Wivenhoe Trail ride video once again.
Six months ago, I cycled off along the Wivenhoe Trail early one sunny morning for the first time. I was but three days into the Great Escape and wasn’t even sure where the Wivenhoe Trail would take me to.
My destination was @15QueenStreet in Sunny Colch for a member’s breakfast social gathering. I wasn’t a member, and if truth be told, I’m not really much of a social person, let alone a breakfast boy.
And so six months later, I cycled off along the Wivenhoe Trail early on a sunny Thursday morning for the 180th (ish) time. I am now six months into the Great Escape and have more or less forgotten what I was escaping from in the first place.
My destination was once again @15QueenStreet in Sunny Colch for a member’s breakfast social gathering. I am now a flexi member, I’ve become quite a social beast and breakfast is bloody ace.
But there’s far more to this story than some half-arsed compare and contrast calendar dates. I pretty much knew what would happen in Wivenhoe, once the Great Escape plan was first hatched back in South London.
I work online, I play online. Sometimes though it is nice to walk away from the modern interweb; this is when the conversation truly becomes social and meaningful. @AnnaJCowen was slightly concerned that she was more insular. I knew that the social web would bring me new opportunities and friendships in our new home.
The girl however has since joined an online local swingers club and returns home in the early hours with a slight limp.
Only joking.
Facilitating [urgh!] all of this (the social, not the swingers) has been the openness of the creatives @15QueenStreet to share and support others in their chosen work. There is absolutely nothing wrong in staying at home in Wivenhoe all day long, but without @15QueenStreet, my Sunny Colch misconceptions would have remained just that.
This informal ethos of sharing and supporting is producing a series of local projects that are genuinely impacting on the lives of local people. Witness the sheer joy from the fine students @ColchesterInst, upon seeing that the BBC had taken an interest in their @15QueenStreet inspired work at the Hidden Kiosks Project.
I’ve personally found some employment through my involvement. I’m always up front about how I’m paying the bills, and I’m very proud to be offered the opportunity to be an Associate Blogger with @creativecoop.
As well as the Hidden Kiosks Project, there’s Keep Colchester Cycling and the newly launched Mentor Me project. The mentoring and supporting approach of this project fits the @15QueenStreet way of working perfectly.
In return, I offer what few online skills I have. And so after a glorious, glorious estuary ride along the Trail on Thursday morning, a quick catch up with friends, and then it was time to help out @firstsite with some online audio work.
I was rewarded with some fresh pastry and some personal pride in being able to mach @15percentkidney in the knobbly knees competition, despite surrendering some two decades to the dandy hipster.
I always end up leaving @15QueenStreet full of ideas and wanting more. There is a great deal of creative talent around these parts that is producing some fine work in isolation. The true social value however comes when the greater goal of collaboration comes along.
I came close to not cycling along the Wivenhoe Trail early one sunny morning for the first time some six months ago. I had boxes to unpack and a BT modern intwerweb network to set up. Taking my work offline and out into Sunny Colch has so far been a defining aspect of the Great Escape.
Here’s the companion piece to the previous Alresford Creekbike ride video, this time showcasing the route from Wivenhoe out towards the Hythe. The Wivenhoe Trail is the main cycle path linking Colchester to Wivenhoe and vice versa. It is greatly valued by local cyclists, providing a much needed alternative from the busses along Boundary Road.
The Trail is a route that one of our Keep Colchester Cycling supporters cycles everyday, partly as a daily commute, partly out of a love of seeing the landscape change week by week, day by day.
It may not possess the natural beauty of the sister route out towards Alresford Creek, but there is some sense of industrial interest once you start to approach the Hythe and the old shipping port.
Cyclists, runners and dog walkers are always out on the Trail, even during the harsh estuary winter that we recently experienced. With one foot of snow and an iced over Colne around the water edges, the Trail was still passable.
The route itself twists and turns, more or less following the path of the railway line. It’s pretty much a flat ride, but one that is best suited for a MTB or a hybrid. This isn’t the best route to try out your urban fixed wheel fixation. Sightings of a solitary unicyclist however are legendary amongst locals.
On a good clear dry day, point to point can take fifteen minutes at a leisurely pace. Once the sandy surface takes in any excess water, an extra ten minutes can be added to the ride.
But it’s not all about the speed - it truly is about the journey itself. There is much to see and hear, with this stretch of the Colne being a happy estuary resting place for many beautiful birds during the migration season.
Being stuck behind a bus going up Boundary Road, or the beauty of a scenic estuary ride? I’ll take the Trail every time.
Chapeau!
As ever, if you are reading this via Facebook, then you may want to head over here for the embedded video action.
Well that felt rather wonderful - rolling out of Wivenhoe on Sunday morning for a brisk bike ride out towards Brightlingsea.
Blimey.
Truth be told and the Giant road bike hasn’t seen any North Essex estuary action since the Great Escape. It somehow managed to side step the South London culling of the fleet, when I cut back on the bikes that I would need around these parts. The Wivenhoe Trail may be ace for my Essex MTB, but I don’t think that the Herne Hill track bike would have enjoyed the terrain around the Hythe.
And that really has been my main bicycling adventure since early autumn - back and forth along the Trail, en route for the daily dip. Alresford Creek occasionally gets a look in, always on the MTB, always at a leisurely pace.
Local road clubs have been sourced, and I am still keen to roll out with the good folk of Colchester Rovers one Saturday morning. But I have been conveniently finding an excuse not to saddle up and put sixty plus miles in the legs to start off the weekend.
I thought that maybe my racing days are over. I bonked badly on the banks at le velo for my final season of track racing. Rolling out with the Dulwich Paragon faired little better, with my King of the Mountain reputation (yeah, right…) receding as we approached the climbs of Crystal Palace.
But then for some unknown reason this weekend, my mind was telling me to take a spin on the road bike and see how the legs felt. Turns out it was the right choice - a trip down to the bike shed and the MTB has picked up a puncture overnight anyway.
Bugger.
And so out came the Giant, the cleats clicked into place and a lycra clad fool rolled out towards Rectory Road.
Oh Lordy.
Brightlingsea was within my radar. A working Sunday meant that I had just less than an hour for the ride there and back. Tourism of the North Essex Riviera can wait for another day.
Out of Wivenhoe, through Alresford (I think it was closed…) and then on towards the coast. My legs picked up the pace with the first few miles. I even found that I was hitting top gear and finding the right lines for the corners.
Twenty minutes later and the coastal smell of fish ‘n chips was wafting through the fresh Brightlingsea air. With the work clock ticking down back at base, I didn’t even bother to de-cleat as I turned around and put my pedals down for the return leg.
Even with such haste, a bicycle is truly the most majestic way in which to explore the delights of the countryside that make up this truly beautiful part of the country. Crossing the railway line at Alresford and you are presented with a picture postcard view of the Colne, slowly rolling back and forth towards Wivenhoe.
I may just leave my MTB puncture unattended for the next few days or so. I never was any good in getting my grubby hands around a bike repair kit. The road bike is back, and the estuary bike lanes are mine to explore.
Come to the Saturday Stanfords auction at Severals they said; have a look at the bicycles - there’s some right bargains to be had. They weren’t wrong. But a Bicycling Boy About Town probably doesn’t need SIX bikes, does he?
Blimey
I think you know where we’re possibly heading with this one…
On offer is essentially a courtyard full of junk. Don’t expect the Sotheby’s fine art experience at a Saturday morning down at Severals. Do expect however some absolute bargain buys, and a bidding process that is most definitely blink ‘n you’ll miss it.
With the formalities of the auction getting underway at 9:45, the first half hour is spent wandering around the courtyard and eyeing up the lots. I wasn’t sure if a pile of bricks was art or arse - or even if the lot that was legitimately up for auction.
Some game old birds were pulling the punters in at the back of the barn shed. Nothing too seedy for a Saturday morning, simply the poultry auction in action with ducks, hens and um, dead rabbits being bid upon.
It was all rather ooh, and ahh and isn’t she sweet? Can we take a pair home please for £20, and then realise that even our rural Wivenhoe garden ‘aint that great for a couple of cocks to strut around before ending up in the pot?
Back to the bikes then…
This was where the real action was taking place. Mr Auctioneer was calling the shots quicker than the time it takes for me to saddle up and roll out down towards the Trail. The average selling time was less than sixty seconds - wham, bam, thank you mam. Look ma - no hands!
A gorgeous Raleigh road bike topped the bidding at £95. Most children’s bikes went for £1 a pair. Catching my eye was a rather delightful period piece Moulton Mini. It was the perfect companion piece to my current ownership of, um, a delightful period piece Moulton Mini, minus the fixed wheel snob status.
@AnnaJCowen wasn’t keen:
“You’ve yet to get the Little Red Wivenhoe Devil out from the shed, so why the chuffers do you need yet another Moulton?”
A good question, and one well put. You watch the girl start to lose interest in me when I take up stamp collecting instead.
I hovered around the Moulton marvel, and soon Mr Auctioneer was rolling off random figures as the bidding started. A cheeky bid of £25 was going to be my tops. I held off for the first thirty seconds, anticipating a grand climax thirty seconds later and a smug smile.
And relax.
No joy - the Moulton went for £35 - a bargain price for sure, but one that is increasingly difficult to justify when you already have a shed load (literally) of the lovely 60′s bikes back at base.
We stayed around Standfords for a little longer, and had some great conversations with likewise local bicycle freaks. There appears to be quite a small community of vintage bike nuts around North Essex, and one that I really need to explore ahead of a possible estuary visit later this year by the good @thebikeshow.
But there wasn’t to be a happy ending with six Moultons ending up back in the garden shed. The pile of bricks reached their asking price and the two prize cocks (steady) were lapped up by a local buxom farmer’s wife type.
And so that was our Stanfords Saturday morning auction experience. Not much bidding action, but ample amusement all the same. We never did find out what the Girl and Ducks Fountain bronze effect garden water feature with LED light and pump finally went for.
I stopped off at the Trail entrance to Ferry Marsh early one morning this week. The plan was to capture on camera what appears to be a sprinkling of broken green glass all along the path around to West Quay; the plan was to write another angry blog post all about the continued disregard for our natural habitat by the Environment Agency. The plan was to get my online knickers in a twist.
Best laid plans, ‘n all that.
Thankfully the day job has kept me rather busy this week. I didn’t find the time to rant and rave all about the latest move by the EA on the stretch of land overlooking Rowhedge.
Which is just as well really - the photos are rather pathetic and the glass isn’t nearly as bad as I first thought. There may even be some logic in spreading tiny fragments of broken green bottles all along Ferry Marsh.
My early fears were that this would make the path impassable for cyclists, something which *possibly* was the plan all along. Apparently cycling isn’t permitted (or at least is heavily frowned upon) all the way along Ferry Marsh.
But then what of the safety of young children wanting to walk and play along the path? In a dedication to the cause that goes way beyond the call (and sanity) of duty, lovely Wivenhoe Forum (whadya mean you still haven’t joined blah blah blah) member Marikawalked bare foot along Ferry Marsh.
Blimey.
She survived in tact. I have my suspicions that she may have even enjoyed it.
And then as the week passed, more details came my about the logic of all the tiny fragments of glass along Ferry Marsh. With a heads up to Moira, a member of the Wivenhoe Wood Working Partypassed on the following information:
“I was working in the Ferry Marsh yesterday and that gave me the chance to see footpath 10 since the Environment Agency cleared all the blackthorn and re-surfaced it. It’s now topped first with a clay sub-strate and then granite chippings on top. There was a constant stream of people in each direction, mainly, of course, walkers, but also bikers, including young girls, and at least one wheel chair user.
Despite all the criticism, I feel that these people would not have been able to use the path prior to its “rebuild”, so I feel that it has been a very positive move. Incidentally, [x] was there and complained that the stone chippings included lots of little pieces of glass, which she could see when the sun shone on it.
We explained that this was almost certainly mica, a common mineral included in granite, and unlikely to cut her dog’s feet. The Ranger in charge of the Woods working party has offered to erect a bench or two along that stretch of Row 10 unless there are any objections. It would probably be in six to ten weeks’ time.”
So yeah - it’s not so much tip toeing on broken glass, but counting my blessings that I didn’t put my size tens (eights actually) in and bang on about the situation.
I still miss the blackberry, rosehip and sloe bushes. But if this allows a wheelchair user to experience some sense of the natural beauty, then this may be the price we have to pay.
Keely Moore: Get yaselves down to the river wye - beautiful - we’ve been for some lovely hols messing about on the river - couple of BnB’s along the way and you can...
