31st May 2012
Journey Length 14.2ml
Our last adventure before our 2 week summer holidays, we decided to head towards Bury along the Bury arm of the canal this being the one with the breach which happened in 1936 just after Nob End near the site of the old Creams Paper Mill. Cycling along here is fantastic , the path widens out considerably after about ½ mile as the canal winds a twisting route towards Bury, the majority of it being in water and therefore there are plenty of ducks, swans and geese to be seen along the canal.
As we got to Radcliffe we crossed over Water St where the canal goes under the road, but there is no accses for pedestrians , only fish. We rejoined the canal and continued along the towpath which in this area is cobbled and created a bumpy and sometimes uncomfortable ride for about ¼ mile. Soon the path turned to a tarmac surface which is great and gave us a smooth journey which took us to the end of the canal at Wellington St Bury.
Along Wellington St we went up to A58 Bury Rd and tuned right and followed the cycle route along Jubilee Way into the centre of Bury, we crossed over and went up Manchester Rd and headed to Bolton St railway station where we came across some old railway carriages that must be used for historical events. We ascended out of the station and turned right along Bolton St and proceeded towards the centre of the town, from here we turned down Market St and then along Angouleme Way and up onto the A56 Manchester Rd until its junction with Radcliffe Rd. Along this road past Newbank garden centre turning left to take yet another detour to a place of interest regarding Graham’s employment.
After a short distance along Eton Hill Rd we turned off into Close Park. This is a lovely little park and is famous for its metal sculptures. The main sculpture greeted us as we entered the park at its main entrance a 8ft high dinosaur called “James and the Ball of Fire” which is spoiled by the amount of barriers around it with various signs warning Dangerous , Do Not Climb. Whether this is Health and Safety gone mad or because if mindless vandalism I am not sure.
We followed the path that goes around the boundary of the park , passed the football pitches and around to the small brook which runs through the park, this is were Ebay attempted to turn and cross over the small bridge but came a cropper (not for the first time see post Drinkwater park Sept 2011), his front tyre losing all grip on the slippery surface the bike went from under him and he ended up running across the bridge without bike, a sight that Graham saw and thought “what the hell is he up to now ?”. After recovering himself and the bike with little damage done to either we found that the council had placed a number of outdoor exercise machines around the park for the public to use freely. We duly tried some of them out, it soon became apparent though that as our gym membership had expired some years prior, our hand eye co-ordination needed some obvious attention, as we floundered around on the machines, luckily the park was quiet and our blushes were spared.
From Close Park we retraced our route up to Cross Lane and onwards to Sion St crossing over the A665 and up passed the Asda store. Along Sion St alongside the river ,and passed the now closed Masons Arms pub, we turned right up a small dirt path leading back to the Bury canal and on our journey back to our base at Little Lever.
Time to get the kettle on Graham !
P.S again there was no sign of the swans and cygnets at their nest at Nob End, but future adventures will see us no doubt catch up with them.
