CTC ride to Blandford and Hinton St Mary

Bob

Today we joined up again with our old friends in the 'Potterer's' for an easier paced ride out to Blandford for coffee and then onto Hinton St Mary for lunch. We meet at Wimborne recreation Ground under grey forbidding skies but with the promise of sunshine to come.Ann and Alan arrive on the tandem trike with a front wheel puncture and by the time it is fixed and the offending piece of glass removed from the tyre the sun is out. We take our usual route out to Blandford following the river valley along quiet country lanes..............hang on a minute did I say quiet? What are all these people doing running along our lanes? We have unwittingly shared our route today with a half marathon so as we ride alongside and past the runners we pass on words of encouragement and support. Once we clear Shapwick we have the roads to ourselves again and enjoy the peace and quiet. That is until we catch up with Bob and others who are on there way to join us at coffee having set off from other directions. 

Ann, Alan & Trike

Shillingstone Station

Our now slightly larger band rolls into Blandford and a coffee stop at Cafe 65 where Kathy and I sit with Ann and Alan and listen to stories of cycling in the 1950's, tandem touring clubs and rides in america. As much as i could have listened to Ann and Alan's stories for much longer it is time to set off again in the general direction of lunch and Hinton St Mary. Our route takes us along the North Dorset Trailway by-passing Durweston and back onto the roads through the pretty village of Stourpaine before once again rejoining the trailway. The trailway here is not a tarmac surface and needs a little ore care, especially on the downhill sections, as one of our number discovered when his front wheel hit the loose stuff and so did he! Fortunately no serious injury and we carry on to Shillingstone where the trailway goes along the platform of the old Shillingstone Railway Station. If you want to you can stop here for refreshments but we had a lunch date to meet.

We leave the trailway again and cross the River Stour and cycle through Child Okeford a quintessential English country village that appears in the Domesday Book.  It's history dates back to 1561 when its then vicar William Kethe wrote the hymm "The Old Hundredth" now better known by its first line "All people who on earth do dwell". Hambledon Hill which lies outside the village was the site of an English civil war battle where Cromwell's Parliamentarians took on 2000 Dorset Royalists. Leaving the history of Child Okeford behind we roll through beautiful undulating countryside to Hinton St Mary another village with its fair share of history. It is famous for the discovery of a virtually complete Roman mosaic in the early 1960's. 

Millennium Garden

This early christian mosaic now resides in the British museum. We enjoy lunch in Hinton St Mary's millennium garden which was created by the villages and celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock.

Mosaic

We leave the garden behind after a leisurely lunch and head back towards the trailway via Sturminster Newton,   which in September hosts one of the UK's largest cheese festivals. Back at the trailway and we now complete the run home on one of those rare out and back routes unlike the loops we normally favour. At Sturminster Marshall we part company with the rest of the group who are heading for another tea stop in favour of a fast hard ride home. This we successfully complete after dodging the revellers and drunk Morris Men at Wimborne folk festival. Another great day out cycling the back lanes and trailways of Dorset and all in glorious sunshine - what could be better?

Hinton St Mary Church

The White Horse

Kathy enjoys a break in the sun