Meeting Graham at Meccano bridge Graham suggested we could visit Burrs Park in Bury, somewhere we hadn’t been to for some time. We set off over the bridge and down onto the footpath of the canal towards Bury, shortly we came to the breach in the canal which since it happened in 1936 had become over grown but it had recently been cleared and you could now see the extent of the breach and the steep incline down to the river.
We traveled along the path passing a swan with young cygnets, until we came out at Water Street in Radcliffe, here we crossed the road and rejoined the path at the side of The Royal Oak pub. As we cycled down the footpath the area became open and we were hit by a strong side wind which soon turned into a head wind but this just made us more determined to reach Burrs Park. Now we thought at least we will have a tail wind on our return journey, so we weren’t to put off. We struggled on and eventually joined Hinds Lane at the end of the tow-path, here it was sheltered from the wind and we took a little breather and had a catch up on our weeks events.
Swan & Cygnets
We turned up Wellington St and then left onto Crostons Rd up the hill until we came to the turning onto Woodhill Rd which took us up to Burrs Park. Once we were in the park we had a little tootle around past the Brown Cow pub and followed a path up at the side of the pub and under the East Lancs railway line, up the other side not knowing where we were actually going, but that’s what explorers do. We came to a long flight of steps which brought us out onto a road in a housing estate, now we were lost, but not to worry technology would come to our rescue, “smart phone” but unfortunately the owner is not smart, flat battery ( hence no route data ), so now it was just down to instinct.
We turned right down the road after a short discussion and followed our instincts which proved right bringing us to a junction with Walsmsley Rd, we turned right judging that it should lead us back into Bury, this it did and we soon found ourselves near the Rock and back under the subways onto Burton Rd under more subways and onto A58 Bury & Bolton Rd.
As we don’t usually cycle along roads this was a practice for our ride later in the year, we had thought previously we would have a tail wind on our return journey but typical we didn’t so we now were beginning to feel the effects of our adventure, but soon we were passing the Ainsworth arms and knew now that we would soon be home. We parted company at the junction of Radcliffe Moor Rd, myself travelling back through Leverhulme Park and home for my tea, which was ready and waiting thanks to my lovely partner Peggy Lou.
