Mooch Around Bolton

1st July 2021

Journey Length 8.1 ml

Graham had managed to finish work early and was already waiting for me when I arrived home. He was impatient to get out on our adventure but before we could get on our way Peggy Lou’s son stopped on his way home from work riding his new electric bike. Graham was eager to have a go and I immediately followed. Wow these electric bikes are amazing, with hardly any effort I rode up the steep hill near my house. After congratulating him on his purchase we set off towards Bolton with no real destination in mind, it was just good to be out with your bestest mate.

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We crossed the viaduct and headed towards Bolton Town centre along Manchester Road. As we rode down Bradshawgate we noticed that a few buildings had been demolished and there was a new 20mph speed limit in force,  on we went ,ensuring not to break the speed limit. Travelling along Deansgate we commented how the centre had vastly changed for the worse since the last time we were here, buildings had closed down and some had been pulled down. With no real target in mind we rode up Knowsley St stopping off at the site of the closed down Debenhams store, sadly another nail in Bolton’s coffin. 

Extreme bikers we are, and normally we abide by all the rules and regulations but sometimes we bend them slightly, and this we did here, riding up the wrong way along Bath St. (We don’t condone this kind of action unless you are an extreme biker). It was at the top of here on Clarence St we came upon the most useless bus stop and time table ever (see photos)

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Graham had mentioned that  he had heard there was a bar, Courtyard 36 which was located in  the old Little Bolton Town Hall, so off we set to find it down past the Holiday Inn emerging on Bridge St where a kind driver stopped to let us cross over the busy road. Which we duly did. Graham noticed the pillars that he said were leaning over, “Wow that’s a big one” he exclaimed “Yeah that’s what she said” I replied with a cheeky Muttley like snigger. We continued our mooch around and as we did Graham spotted an old car in the distance, so off we rode to investigate. It turned out to be a 1949 Citroën Traction Avant. We spoke with the owner and it turned out to be his daily drive, a truly lovely looking car. 

We were now up onto Marsden Road with a view over Bark St.as I stopped to take a photo, as I did, a rather strange couple, who  obviously had a skin full and not the brightest people you could meet  passed us, the woman being pushed along in a wheelchair by the man, both turning to Graham and shouting “Hiya, alreet mate”. “Friends of yours?” ,I inquired jokingly. 

We approached Queens Park where the Bolton Iron-man was being held that weekend. It brought memories of our dear mate Phil who completed the course a few years ago, happy memories they are too. On our way back we saw an old Castrol oil sign on a building and tried to determine what it used to be but to no avail. I promised Graham that I would try to investigate. Sadly I was unable to find anything out about it. A sign across the road read “Iron-man Finishing Line”. So off we set to follow the signs under my guidance. The route took us around past the now flatted Moor Lane bus station, but we noticed the steelwork of a new building opposite the old Post Office. We stopped to investigate. As we looked at the construction site we became aware of how quiet and decolet the town centre has become, not all due to the covid pandemic. The building, it turned out, was to be the new YMCA building, well there was only one thing to do………………………………… 

After our bit of silliness we rode on passed the flattened site of the Odeon cinema (another iconic building lost) as we followed the signs. These led us to the front of the town hall where they had set up the red carpet finishing line for the Iron Man event. After a quick break we rode up to find somewhere to sit and have a catch up in the sunshine , since we hadn’t seen one another for ages. Failing to find a bench in the sunshine we ended up standing on the railway bridge on Great Moor St . Whilst we were standing there chatting away we were passed by an open top bus not once but 3 times, yes an open top bus in Bolton. As it passed by we caught sight of the building across the road , oh boy we thought that is one ugly building, more so in fact because we had just been admiring the architecture of the old Post Office building. We had a good natter about our holidays and other manly things before we set off to continue  our mooch around Bolton, this turned out to be easier said than done. Our natter had caused us both to seize up and with numerous moans and groans we were eventually on our way, no doubt both secretly wishing we had an electric bike.

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One thing Graham had mentioned earlier was that he would like to have a look around the grounds of the parish church. We travelled along Churchgate noticing the pubs were open and people were sitting outside enjoying a drink in the evening sun, nice to see after the last 12 months or so. The parish church looked splendid as we rode around the grounds. We’d been here a while ago and Graham remembered the last time there was a homeless person living in a tent in the grounds, a sad sign of the times.

Leaving the church behind we rode along Institute St  which took us behind what used to be the Canon cinema, as we did we both reminisced about going to the Canon Cinema on Bradshawgate and the Odeon Cinema on Ashburner St back in the day watching all the blockbusters of the time.

We had both noticed a chill in the air and youth not being on our side and only in tee-shirts and shorts we took the decision to head home, but before we did we bobbed into the car park of the new Audi garage on Manchester Road to look around at the stunning cars. There was certainly a lot of money in that car park. Whilst we looked around our attention was drawn to some people having a party in their front garden, obviously under the influence of alcohol and worse for wear, they  shouted over to Graham to sing along with the music ” certainly do attract em you pal !”. Now it was definitely time to head home.

Clock Here For More Photos