After a long period of riding we came to an old ruined Roman Fort. It wasn’t much so we went straight on. The leader saw the old ruined Roman Fort at Housesteads and told us to stop. The price to go and see it was 6d a person. The leader told us the hostel was about 3 miles away. It took us about a quarter of one hour but it wasn’t open se we went straight down to the cafe where we had a cup of tea and two cakes each. After that some lads got two bottles of lemonade; others got one. After we had drunk it we went back to the hostel which still wasn’t opened so we took our bags off and put them in a pile. The leader took a party back to see the Roman Fort, Borcovicium at Housesteads and off they went while we watched our cycles and the bags. It was about half past four when they came back. After a half hours wait it opened and we picked our bags up and on we went into the hostel for the best beds. When we had done that we got our tins of stuff out and started to make the dinner. When it was ready we served it out and after we had eaten it we washed up.
Next morning it was frosty but fine. When we got ready, we made our breakfasts. When we had eaten them we washed up started off again. The first village we stopped at was Bardon Mill where we had a cup of tea in an inn. After we had finished, we started off for Hexham. We followed the Tyne for a good way. When we got about 9 miles and a half out of Bardon Mill we stopped because Leslie Alderton thought he had a puncture. He blew it up and it didn’t go down, so we went on again but it went down again so the leader stopped and took the tube out. When he had taken the tyre off there were two holes in the tube, so he started to put patches on. When he had done that he put the tube back into the tyre. Then the leader started to open the sardines for our dinners and we ate them with some bread. After we had eaten them we started off towards Hexham which was about 2 miles away. It was an easy 2 miles and we got to Hexham in good time. There we stopped and had a cup of tea and a few cakes. We had a look around the town and some of us bought some telescopes. After we had a look round we went to our bikes and started off again. The next village was Riding Mill it was about 4 miles from Hexham. On the road to Riding Mill we saw some other cyclists and passed them, then they came and passed us. When we reached Riding Mill we passed straight through there because we were so keen in racing them. Mr Brown stopped and got his map out and said we had passed the road where we should have turned off. So we all turned back for Riding Mill and there we saw the road. We took it and found our way to the Minster House. It was starting to snow and it was very windy but the trees sheltered us. We soon reached the main road
and took a short cut down to a farm. Mr Brown asked the farmer if we could walk through the field and he said, “Yes”. We therefore pushed our bikes through the field and came to an old swing bridge which, however rickety it was, we all got across safely. After about a quarter of an hours walk, we came to the Edmundbyers road and following it, soon reached the hostel. We had a good dinner and soon were off to bed. The next morning our breakfasts were provided for us
After we had eaten our breakfast we got ready and left Edmundbyers for home. Throughout the ride we had the help of a strong tail wind and the first six miles which were mostly downhill were covered in about 25 minutes. When we were passing through Consett we saw a big steel works where there was a lot of scrap lying around in the yards. We passed straight on to Leadgate and onto Lanchester, some 4 miles from Leadgate. It was an easy ride and it took us about half an hour. When we reached Lanchester we looked for a place to get some tea. After we had eaten we noticed some Lanchester lads playing football and asked if we could have a game. Soon we left for Witton Gilbert which was about 3 miles away and reaching Witton Gilbert, went straight through onto the Durham. The road descended into Durham and from there in fine weather we rode on to Shincliffe. Our way home now lay along the familiar six mile stretch of the A181 road so ending a successful tour; the first tour when the club passed the ‘hundred up’
Total Mileage: 138
By E Fulcher, 1951
