The Search For Miller and Carter

8th July 2021

Journey Length 17.73ml

Meeting Graham at his house at 6.00pm was the plan, but just like most things in life it doesn’t always go as you planned. Due to matters outside my control I was running late, I had put my bike on the back of the car, driving over to save time. On arrival at Graham’s I found him lying half way in his hallway apparently asleep. I gave his foot a little kick with no response, once again I nudged him. Then he moved, it was like sleeping beauty waking up, stretching and yawning, for Pete’s sake I was only 10 minutes late.

After Graham’s awakening we got our act together and set off, initially we were heading to Burrs country park travelling along the Bury arm of the canal but that changed a little later. The canal is home to a vast variety of wildlife, one of the most wonderful sights was that of a family of swans swimming along the canal. We were almost at the end of the canal when I rode onto the edge of the stone path but my rear wheel stayed in the mud skidding along with shouts from behind me from Graham “wow mate that was a great recovery, great bit of riding that well done pal”

Before riding up to the viaduct over the river Croal we paused for a break and a chat. On chatting about various things I mentioned that I no longer had a book about clouds I had been given by Graham many years ago. He misunderstood and thought I had thrown it away. This upset him but in fact he needn’t have worried it’s up in my mum’s loft, but this didn’t really pacify him.

As a rule I plan our adventures, have an idea of the route and take the photos so for a change I thought I’d give Graham the job of being on point and leading the way, sadly this wasn’t one of my brightest ideas, we’d only travelled less than a mile and he was already heading in the wrong direction. Nevertheless with a bit of encouragement he was soon out of his comfort zone and he took charge and we were soon enjoying our ride with Graham leading the way. Sat on the viaduct we looked over at all the buildings in view, one was an old mill with a chimney with the most weeds we’d ever seen growing out of the chimney, Graham then pointed out the fire training centre building stating how he thought it was an ugly building, what do you think??

We crossed Peel Way and spotted a sign for cycle route No6 sign posted for Greenmount. Seeing this Graham once again took control and said “ we were going up to Greenmount “, he had a voucher for Miller and Carter and he wanted to locate it, this sounded like a good plan, so off we set. This part of the ride was fabulous, it was such a pleasant and peaceful cycle route. Riding over some lovely bridges and a viaduct over the river, which Graham pointed out had some lovely stone work.

I mentioned in a previous blog that Graham has a new job working for the AA and just as we were crossing a road we both spotted the RAC van down the road and we both unprompted and in unison started to ”BOO” the RAC van then turning to each other both giggling like a couple of school kids, people must have thought we were mad.

We are now heading up the Kirklees Trail, the old railway line from Holcombe Brook to Bury. Along here we came across some lovely iron sculptures, and posed for a couple of photos. It was just after here where it was Graham’s turn to use his extreme biking skills to avoid crashing off his bike.All this was happening after Val telling us to be careful as she waved us off on our adventure. As we rode on chatting away I spotted what looked like a young lad sitting on the side of the path, pointing this out to Graham I asked him “ What do ya think he’s doing pal”. As we approached it became apparent we were wrong. In fact we came upon one of the most fascinating sights either of us had ever seen , it was the sight of the old Tottington railway station………

It was amazing for a couple of reasons. Firstly it looked fantastic but secondly we were amazed that it hadn’t been vandalised at all, a credit to the people of the area. At the end of the trail we headed up to find Graham’s holy grail, the Miller and Carter,where he was going to take Val for a meal. He was made up that he’d found it and requested I take his photo, how could I refuse. His mission accomplished, we were soon on our homeward journey and it was going to be all downhill whooppeee.

Many of you may be aware that when we ride two abreast Graham is always on my left, we’re just like a cycling Ant and Dec, you can decide who’s who. I had decided to pull over and take a couple of photos on our way back, this proved to be nearly disastrous. I pulled over to my left not realising Graham was so close behind me, a real schoolboy error, but Graham’s extreme biking instinct kicked in and saved the day, cheers my best pal. At the end of the trail we waited at a crossing. Noticing a van coming down the road Graham started to BOOO, I looked around to see an AA van coming down “Oops that’s not a Booing van that’s one of mine” Graham stated, feeling a little embarrassed he gave the driver a little wave as he passed.

This adventure had been a learning experience for us both and to finish it off we passed a couple of young teenage girls and as we thanked them for moving to the side (as we do for everyone) they turned, smiled and said “you’re most welcome”, their parents would have been extremely proud of them we both thought. Sooner that you could say “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” we were back at Graham’s and our adventure was over.