20th July 2023
A dentist appointment for myself was the order of the day this afternoon, which is not something I relish but this time it proved to be a blessing in disguise. Not only did Sharon tell me that all was good and even my x-rays came back all clear it meant that we could start our adventure earlier than planned this evening, thanks to an earlier than usual finish for Graham also. We met up at the Old Jaguar garage in Farnworth , I was already there when Graham arrived, a little out of breath. ” Give me 5 mins pal”. After a quick chat and breather it was time to set off on this week’s adventure, with Graham said ” his legs were back now” which obviously related to his legs feeling the strain riding up from Little Lever.
Today’s adventure was a surprise for Graham , I had done some homework for this one, we were off to Atherton to locate something that a work colleague had told me about recently that to be honest I knew little about.
Up Plodder Ln we rode at a leisurely pace, not in a rush as we had got an early start and the weather was fine and sunny although there was quite a breeze which was in our faces. Not long into our journey we heard the sound of the sirens of an emergency vehicle behind us, so as any biker should we pulled over to let the ambulance pass unhindered. No sooner had we done this we came upon a traffic jam, cars backed all the way from the lights at Watergate Ln a distance of around 1/2 mile .As extreme bikers we knew instinctively not to pass the cars on the inside, this would be asking for trouble. Instead we pulled out and carefully overtook the traffic occasionally we pulled back in as the traffic began to move, we continued to weave in and out until we turned off down Watergate Ln.
We were soon across the A6 and near Cuttacre Park amongst the vast expanse of huge gigantic warehouses of Amazon and Aldi amongst others. Just before we got to the warehouses themselves we stopped to look at some new drive thru buildings not yet finished and pondered what they were possibly going to be, obviously not Costa Coffee as Graham pointed out there were 2 of them already. As we rode on the cycleway/footpath I heard Graham shout out behind me “ Oh shit , wow that was a close one “ he’d gotten distracted , by looking how many loading bay’s there were at the Aldi warehouse and he almost rode straight into a lamppost. That disaster averted we made our way through Cutacre Park .
I looked back to see a couple of Amazon lorries parked up and I said to Graham ” those lorries are new” he looked at me with his bemused look as I continued ” yeah they’re in their Prime “, with a deep sigh from Graham we continued towards Lansdowne Road before we crossed over Bolton Road and onto Broadway where we found the first of our destinations for this evening, Pretoria Memorial . The memorial is to the victims of a mining disaster where 344 men and boys lost their lives. It was something I had heard about but had little knowledge and didn’t even realise that it was on our doorstep, so I felt it only right to pay our respects. Here is a brief history courtesy of wiki .
The Pretoria Pit disaster was a mining accident on 21 December 1910, when an underground explosion occurred at the Hulton Colliery Bank Pit No. 3, known as the Pretoria Pit, in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, then in Lancashire, in North West England. A total of 344 men and boys lost their lives.
We left the memorial behind as we did I noticed an unusual structure in the field close by, upon inspection it did not appear to be anything to do with the mine.
Click on link below for more detailed information
https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Westhoughton/Pretoria/pretoria.html
We then managed to locate a path that would hopefully lead us to my next objective of the evening, but before we could get on our way graham had a problem with his bicycle which he informed me he had owned for 8 years and hadn’t had any problems with, up until now that was . He told me that he had a strange noise emanating from the front of his bicycle. It was apparent he had a problem with his suspension and shouted out , obviously without thinking ” Hey Pal I think I need my shaft lubing”. Realising what he had just said we both burst out in hysterics like a couple of childish school boys. The path we had found took us around and into some woods and it looked like in the right direction, that was until we encountered some very deep mud. We struggled on through for a while but it became quite apparent that we couldn’t progress any farther and had to admit defeat and turn around. Which was easier said than done there were so many paths we soon became lost.
We eventually got back on track along Highfield Ave and wormed our way around the streets before we came upon the football stadium of Laburnum Rovers FC , commonly known as Atherton LR. We paused here while I got my bearings. As we chatted graham asked why it was called Laburnum ? ,I didn’t know but promised I would look it up and put it into our blog, so here goes :- The club play home matches at Crilly Park, three sides of the ground are covered. They originally played at Laburnum Road Playing Fields, from which they took their name, and used a shed in a nearby allotment as a changing room. So there you go bestie as promised. It was here we posed for the obligatory selfie, as we commented on how we had been lucky with the weather the last couple of weeks and today, getting the only really nice nights of the weeks for our adventures
Now it was onwards to find my next port of call but before then we stopped off at Victoria Mill on Bolton Old Rd which now contains a lot of small businesses, whilst we rested I noticed a couple of guys dressed in camouflage gear each carrying a long bag walk into the mill, I said to Graham “think them 2 look like they’re going shooting”, he just gave me one of his gave me a strange looks .It wasn’t long though before he commented ” By eck pal you’re right , blinking observant you are pal I wouldn’t have noticed them “ as he pointed to a sign on the wall “Atherton Indoor Range” shooting club. From here we went down Blacksmiths Fold until we found a pathway alongside Chanters Brook. Graham still had no idea what we were looking for as we rode down the path passed a young lad sat on a bench quite happily enjoying a special cigarette. At the end of the path I told Graham that there was supposed to be a sculpture entitled NUTS & BOLTS that we must have missed . We retraced our path as we looked for the sculpture backup passed the young lad. With no success we turned around passing the lad yet again who still had no idea we had now passed him 3 times, in as many minutes. It must have been a very good special cigarette. Sadly we were unable to find the sculpture in the dense undergrowth, which may have been hiding it , we’re not sure it’s still there to be honest the last photos were taken over 6 years ago, but we agreed we’d try and get back in autumn when we hopefully would have more chance of finding it. Over in the distance to our right was Alder Street Stadium the home to the other Atherton football club, Atherton Collieries.
A little deflated we continued on our way. We rode along Tyldesley Old Road a short while before we twisted and turned until we came to snicket where a man was walking towards us with his elderly dog just behind. He thanked us for waiting and apologised for his slow dog I said “it’s fine mate no worries , we’re not in any rush” . Graham said that he looked tired and the owner politely corrected him say it was a she and that she had been on along walk earlier As we rode on Graham asked one of his odd questions “ Do you think that dog owner thought I was being sexiest callin his dog a he ?” I pointed that I call dogs a she because my dog is a bitch, so no he wouldn’t really.
We now went through a field full of horses on our left and it was here I found out something new about my bestie, he actually owned a horse when he was a child, and that he could ride a horse , a feat I have yet to master.
We soon headed up towards Engine Road when we came upon a horse stile . On approaching it Graham called out to me “ Bunny hop it pal”, I replied “ You go first pal” with myself having no real intention of doing it. Graham went for it, then crash bang wallop he’d come to an abrupt stop as he failed to hop over . “Don’t believe it ,had this 8 years and never broke anything and now look what I’ve done “ he said forlornly. He’d also injured his leg but that didn’t stop an extreme biker. Recovered from is bruised ego and injured leg we continued on our way.
Graham had felt a little exhausted as we exited Cuttacre park, he hadn’t regained his full extreme biker fitness ,so we paused for a breather and sat on a bench on the A6. We chatted away as we watched the traffic speeding by. After 20 mins or so we got up to mount our steeds. By now the sun was low in the sky and we both commented on how it had become a lot cooler. “Can’t believe how chilly it’s got I’m freezing pal “ commented Graham. As we rose from the bench we resembled the 2 old guys from the muppet show moaning and groaning as we struggled to our feet.
We left the A6 behind us as we rode back uphill toward Plodder Ln just in time for the traffic lights to turn red. Graham once again said how he couldn’t believe that it’d gone so cold and I admitted that I was a little chilly too ,so we decided that when we got to Bradford road where we would part company we wouldn’t stop and carry on to our homes but as always message each other when we got home .
