CTC ride to Cranborne and Martin

John of Gaunt

We meet at Wimborne Recreation Ground on a fairly grey and chilly morning, it really is starting to feel like autumn now. We head out on our normal route to Cranborne going past Gaunt House which was, allegedly, once the home of  John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) who was a member of the House of Plantagenet being the third surviving son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. He was called "John of Gaunt" because he was born in Ghent, then rendered in English as Gaunt.

Horton Tower

From here it's on to Horton and the tower that sits on top of the hill looking over the road. The tower is a five red brick gothic observation tower designed and built by Humphrey Sturt who was an architect, Lord of Horton Manor and MP for Dorset. 

He was responsible for developing Crichel House at the nearby village of Moor Crichel. At Horton he had already created a 200-acre (0.81 km²) lake, and he resolved to indulge this whim again at Moor Crichel, albeit on a smaller scale. There was only one difficulty: the cottages of the village were in the way. The site of the former village of Moor Crichel now lies submerged beneath the waters of the lake. The entire village was moved to what is now called New Town at Witchampton, leaving only the church (rebuilt in 1850) and a carefully contrived landscape in front of the classical mansion. The site of the old village disappeared under the waters of a large crescent-shaped lake, around which was planted an elegantly landscaped park.

Leaving the tower or 'Sturts Folly' as it is known locally behind us we continue on towards coffee at Cranborne. On route we catch up with Alan and Ann who are finishing repairing the broken chain on their tandem trike. They were doing this alongside a humorous sign (see picture) which the club should now probably replace with one that reads 'On 17 November 2013 Alan and Ann of Wessex CTC stopped here to mend a broken chain.

We cycle on enjoying the changing colours of autumn and avoiding the wet leaves that make cycling more interesting at this time of year!

The road takes us through Edmondsham which appears as ‘Amedesham’ in the 1086 Domesday Book, the name simply means ‘homestead or enclosure belonging to a man named Eadmod or Eadmund’, from an old English personal name and ‘ham’ for homestead. After this it is Cranborne, the garden centre and coffee in The Old Potting Shed Tea Room. The garden centre is actually situated in the old walled garden of Cranborne Manor but at this point of more interest to us is the fact that there is hot drinks and excellent toasted teacakes!

After coffee it is on via Damerham to lunch at Martin. Damerham was an ancient land holding of the Saxon kings and was mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great, who desired that his men of Damerham should be free. In 940–6 Edmond 1 granted a hundred dwellings at Damerham, Martin and Pentridge to his queen Æthelflæd. Damerham may have been the birthplace of Æthelflæd who bequeathed Damerham to Glastonbury Abbey when she died in the late 10th century.

Dr Who

We are fortunate today that the church is open and we can get in for a look around as it is a lovely church with beautiful stained glass windows. Martin has another claim to fame which is very topical as we celebrate 50 years of Dr Who it was used in the episode 'The Awakening' as a film location. For those interested the episode was filmed in 1984, featured Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor and was set during the English Civil War.

Window at All Saints, Martin

Kevin and Derek

A selection of steeds......

After lunch in the churchyard at Martin the group splits with some heading for home by taking the flatter route back through Damerham while the rest of us head for the hills. It is another one of our well cycled routes that takes us up Blagdon Hill and back to Cranborne. We can tell winter is on its way as the pigs that reside on top of the hill in summer are now in their winter quarters in the shelter of the valley. We follow suit and after a brief comfort break at Cranborne follow the valley back to Wimborne and finally home.

Another great day out that has covered Plantagenets, Saxon Kings, Victorian Follies and Dr Who; who said life is dull!