16th May 2024
I’d arranged to meet up with Graham at the Old Jaguar Garage (now West Riding Hyundai) as for the past month or so the council had been building a new cycle junction at this set of traffic lights, which had caused huge traffic problems for weeks, so I thought we’d have a look to see if it was all worth it.
Graham was sat on the wall patiently awaiting my arrival. We greeted each other like the best friends we are( no kissing tho ). The weather was a bit iffy, frequent showers but quite mild and at one point it was touch and go if we would get out, but Graham had made the decision IT WAS A GO . Whilst we got our breath back after us riding up steep hills to get to this point I took the opportunity to look around some of the cars on the forecourt. Graham asked ” Looking to upgrade my bestie” , referring to my new Hyundai car I had recently purchased.
Suitably rested we set off utilising the new cycle path around the junction, as we did Graham questioned whether we we going round the right way, I reassured him that we were. To be honest it is a little confusing if you’ve not really used them before. Reference to the question was it worth it, in my opinion it wasn’t, but only time will tell.
As we rode along Albert Rd the rain began to fall again which made it a little less enjoyable, that is until I heard graham behind me laughing ” Did you see that lad acting all cool with his expensive trainers, shades and shorts on, he just stood in some dog muck and he wasn’t happy to say the least”. It just made us laugh that now, he didn’t look so cool. As well as the new cycle path a lot of construction had been taking place on the site of the old Farnworth Market so we decided to stop off and have a look . Well what a transformation from the old market, now standing in its place are what look like some high rise apartments, but they’re not finished yet and we’re not sure exactly what the area is going to be but we will revisit it in a later adventure.
We left Farnworth behind as we headed south toward Blackleach county park, the site of a gruesome discovery of human body parts related to a murder a few months earlier . As we approached the gates Graham was a a little apprehensive but I reassured him that we’d be safe as long as we stuck together “ there’ll be no murder in hear tonight I promised him” . Now he felt relaxed we rode around the lake which is in the middle of the park and stopped off at a bench that was definitely not designed for a person of small stature.
As we chatted away Graham notice a couple of the ducks were having a bit of rummpy pumpy . As we stood there watching this amazing we felt like David Attenborough watching nature in its rawest form. Shortly the male duck swam off with its friend, mission accomplished. Myself and Graham couldn’t help but imagine how their conversation went between them, “ well did you get it on pal?” , “ oh not half we were at it for ages” , “ do you know if she’s got a friend ? “, “ I don’t know , but I could do with a smoke “,
Our toilet humour over we decided to proceed around to the far side of the lake, what a fantastic decision that turned out to be, not only had we witnessed the ducks mating but now we came upon a family of Canada geese with their gosling in tow, a wonderful sight to see , nature is so wonderful. This in fact would not be the last wonder of nature we would encounter on our adventure that evening.
We exited the park along the Linnyshaw Loopline which in turn brought us out onto Manchester Rd in Walkden, as we did I received a message from Mr Carl my son in law informing me that he would be in our local pub if I fancied a pint if I wasn’t out on the bikes. I just sent him a selfie of us both , his reply was brilliant ” Ha ha proper all weather extreme bikers “.
From here we headed south once again as we made our way through the streets to join the Roe Green Loopline. Now according to the map there was a shortcut via Mereclough Ave, but this was actually incorrect and it had been blocked off by a set of gates of the Co-Op Academy Walkden building, we therefore had to find another way, but as Extreme Bikers this is something we are used to. We worked our way through the estate until we came upon a pathway off Ash Drive that looked promising. Indeed it was in a roundabout way, it brought us out eventually right next to the Roe Green Loopline. As we joined the line we noticed a very nice gate on our left that actually went no where, obviously it led through the field before the area was fenced off for the Co-Op academy, but as Graham pointed out “ Its a waste of a good gate now, I could use them hinges on my gate at home”
We sat down on one of the benches on the Loopline to rest our aching old bones and chatted about this and that. The loopline was strangely devoid of people and was therefore quite tranquil as we enjoyed the peace we listened to the birds singing away in the trees. This was to be our third wonder of nature on our adventure that evening. A Blackbird had landed in a tree right next to us and I noticed Graham had a big grin on his face, when I inquired why , he replied ” I can actually hear the birds singing away loud and clear , they’re wonderful ! “ he exclaimed . I was so pleased for him because Graham is totally deaf in one ear and has diminished hearing in his other, so for him to hear their wonderful songs was brilliant , it really made both our days on this adventure.
We followed our map along the loopline until it marked our exit towards Cleggs Lane, but what the map didn’t show it was up a large set of steps, but undeterred we carried our bikes up to the top, at the end of the day we’re Extreme Bikers. We rode along Cleggs lane to its junction with St James St in Farnworth , here we paused as I suggested to Graham that we go and take a look at the old Century Mill that I had heard was being demolished to make way for anew housing development. Graham thought that it was a great idea so off we went. As we arrived at the mill we could see that a large portion of it had already gone and been replaced with houses but some of it was still standing. As we stared at its sorry remains we reflected on how this fantastic structure had been built over 100 years ago without the aid of computers. The sheer size of the building with its numerous floors and massive pillars holding it up was a sight to behold.
The rain had eventually stopped as we looked on at the remains of the mill but it was now heading towards 8.00pm and the light was fading as I asked Graham if he had a preference to which way we would head home. He replied that he was thinking of heading to have a look at the railway bridge over Stoneclough Rd that was being repaired on our last visit there in Bridges ,Bikes & Viaducts (Aug 2023) but we agreed that it was probably a little late in the day for that and we would visit it on a adventure in the near future . He instead suggested we take a look at the first house he and Val had back in the early 90s, so that’s just what we did. Sadly the years hadn’t been kind to the area or the house, there were boarded up houses and litter everywhere. We soon decided it was better left as we remembered it back in the day and head home. At the bottom of Egerton St we nearly hit by a lad on a large electric scooter/bike that Graham described as looking like something out of a Batman film.
As we stopped I noticed across the road what looked like a large statue covered in a tarpaulin stood amongst the grass at the junction with Manchester Rd. Puzzled as to what it was we vowed to return and find out what the tarpaulin was hiding. It was here we departed company to head home to our wives, promising as usual text one another when we arrived home safely.
did you discover who the mystery statue is ? just curious 🧐
No not yet was going to Google it but decided we will revisit it later hopefully it’ll be unveiled, builds the suspense 😂