17th July 2025
Graham arrived just as I had gotten my bike out of the garage. I noticed that he’d got his jumper on , I on the other hand had taken the decision not to wear one even though rain had been forecast during our adventure. As he pulled up to me I asked why he had his jumper on. Was it being a nice evening he exclaimed “ I Put mi jumper on pal but now I think I won’t need it, I’m going to tie it around my waist .“ He did just that and he looked like a school boy on his way home . He then added “ It’s really muggy tonight pal , sweating already “ . I then glanced over at Graham he had a look of disappointment on his face then he said.” Can’t believe it pal I’ve forgot my water bottle”. He was so angry with himself for forgetting it, but I said he can share mine with pleasure, which cheered him up.
Our destination for this adventure was to be Jumbles reservoir but first we had a couple of stop offs to make. The first one was the disused railway cutting near where I live. Some absolute idiots ,had fly tipped a load of asbestos sheets in the cutting which I wanted to show to Graham. Fortunately, it had all been removed by especially company when we got there. Some people are so inconsiderate it was a serious health hazard to people and the wildlife that lives in the cutting.
We now set off through Leverhulme park. It was here I decided to test my brakes which I had repaired during the week as on our previous adventure No Choo Choos Today they had been making a terrible squealing noise . Now they were no longer squealing and stopping quite well. I explained to Graham that the brakes on my e-bike were much keener and I said “ if I pulled the brakes that hard on that bike I would go over the angle bars “
“Angle bars , you mean handle bars “ he retorted, pulling me up on my pronunciation. He then went on to say “ Be careful pal your feet don’t slip off your pegals” with his cheeky little grin. This was to be a recurring theme throughout the evening
We exited Leverhulme park and crossed the road and down through Seven Acres park where we enjoyed a pleasant ride with no issues . Out of the park we crossed over the busy Thicketford Rd , well I did . As I continued to go down Alders lane I realised Graham wasn’t behind me so I pulled over to wait for him. He’d gotten held up by the traffic.
At the bottom of lane we could see the emerging skeleton of a large building under construction. The last time we were here the site was a mass of pipes as United Utilities were upgrading the water system. On further investigation of the building site I spotted some unusual objects. These were in fact robotic security guards. Graham explained to me how they worked and that as he understood it real security guards had to come and log in every now and again so the security company would know they were doing their job.
We now approached our second stop off the birthplace of Samuel Crompton probably one of the most important people to come from Bolton, who back in 1779 invented the spinning mule, which permitted large-scale manufacture of high-quality thread and yarn. More information about him can be found here :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Crompton
As we rode up the slippery path towards the cottage I once again became aware that Graham wasn’t with me. I paused for a minute before he emerged, “ sorry pal slipped off the flags “. Luckily he wasn’t hurt , maybe just his pride. As we admired the lovely thatched cottage of his birthplace I looked down at my hand that had been painful for the last 15mins or so , there protruding from my finger was a huge thorn. I realised I wouldn’t be able to continue on without removing it, so out it came.
We now retraced our steps, Graham being super cautious not to slip on the flags again. We set off to Longsight park. Here we paused for a moment and noticed the flag on the flagpole hanging straight down obviously there was no breeze at all Graham once again commented ” Eee pal how muggy is it ? “. We continued on our adventure passing by the the pub called The House Without A Name. We then turn right up Bradshaw Road until we came to a gate on our left . This would lead us down to Bradshaw Brook . We followed the dirt path until we came to Bradshaw Fisheries where he climbed the steep little hill to the car park and outside Café 12 . I asked Graham if you would like a drink of my water he replied “ have you got a cold one pal ha ha “ chuckling away to himself . We sat on one of the benches outside the Cafe and had a quick catch up. Graham‘s family visit over to Barnsley and me with my mum‘s 90th birthday party. Graham said that Val hadn’t been well and I told him that Peggy Lou was also poorly. I asked Graham would he be looking after Val he said “oh yeah pal I make her a brew “.We then took our obligatory selfie and both commented “that’s a good one Pal “, like we always do, its a tradition now.
We continued to follow the path up the side of Bradshaw Brook passing a large plant in the middle of the river. We were soon at the base of Jumbles reservoir I enquired with Graham which way should we go, around jumbles or take the shortcut up the other side. Graham replied “ let’s go all the way round Pal“.
We dismounted from our steeds and pushed them slowly up the steep gravely hill ,it was here Graham noticed an outcrop of Rocks on our right and commented that they were very similar to the the rocks at a place where we both played as kids, known to us as Red Rocks which is in Moss’s gate country Park. At the top of the hill we mounted our steeds and rode leisurely around the reservoir . The water in the reservoir was very low the lowest we had ever seen. It was at this point Graham inquired whether I thought jumbles reservoir or Clifton Marina was bigger. I replied “Jumbles it looks much bigger than Clifton Marina “ Graham though thought Clifton Marina was bigger. I said I will try and find out via Google to see who was right, the results are as below you can make your own mind up.
Jumbles Reservoir : Holds 450 million gallons of water , is 75ft deep, with a shoreline of 3.075Km
Clifton Marina :Is a small freshwater lake , with a 1.24km shoreline. Clifton Marina’s depth is comparatively shallow
We left the reservoir via Grange Road passing some very large and nice houses. Partway down the road we took a sharp right hand turn which would lead us up to Bromley Cross station. We thought there was a bridge over the railway but in fact it was a pedestrian level crossing . There was a young lady at the gate waiting to cross and as we approached a train came rattling past . When the train had passed and stopped in the station, the gate was opened by the person manning the station. The young lady in front of us kindly held open the gate to let us through and we did the same at the other side. As we looked round at the station, Graham noticed that the person manning the station was actually a woman so then the question begged should it be womaning the station? We crossed over the road and rode up a Bromley Cross road and on through the estate on our left, which would allow us to drop down into Eagley Brook . This looked quite simple at first until we came across some huge steps going down a very steep Hill. We are extreme bikers but sometimes you need to know your limitations so we dismounted our bikes and pushed them slowly down the hill and down the steps. As we did an old man walking his passed us on his way up and said to us “ you lads should be riding down there“ . We replied “ we’re a bit old for that now to be honest “ he just looked to us and nodded his head then he said “ I’ve seen some idiot try and ride down em from the top, he didn’t half come a cropper.”
At the bottom of the hill, we came to path which we followed over a small bridge then we had a choice right up the hill or left along the side of the Brook. As we pondered Graham said “it’s still muggy pal or is it muddy like in pedal! “with a little giggle to himself still picking up on my mispronunciation .We chose the path at the side of the Brook. This turned out to be the wrong decision. This path was horrendous. It was almost impassable and after about 50 yards I turned to Graham and asked “shall we turn round Pal ?“, Graham replied “ no Pal we are on adventure. We are extreme bikers we don’t give in “
As we stumbled and struggled with our bikes on the slippery path getting our bikes caught amongst trees and tree roots it began to get really dark and there was rain in the air. By now we had been struggling for nearly 10 minutes and only gonna a matter of feet with both myself and Graham nearly slipping into the Brook. I had calculated our route would take us approximately two hours but this was putting a spanner in our works. We continued to struggle and battle along until I noticed what looked like a better path some 10 feet above us. I left Graham with the bikes and explored whether it was any better. Indeed, it was. So we now had to try and get our bikes up the very steep rocky incline but working as a team we did it. The path though had taken its toll on both of us.
We continued to follow the path until we came to a small metal bridge where Graham commented “ wow actual signs of civilisation “. Once across the bridge we came to a large pond on our left which looks pretty eerie in the evening light. We could see a steep rocky path to our right and Graham sighed “Oh pal we don’t have to go up there do we “,“ sadly yes Pal “ I answered. The path was rocky and extremely slippy and we made slow progress but eventually we made it to the top and onto Oaks Lane. At the top Graham said “Phew beginning to feel it now pal,” and then added “And its still muggy int it “
It was on Oaks Lane where we came to our second level crossing of our adventure. These barriers were to be operated by ourselves and a sign said cyclists dismount. I got off my bike and slowly pushed the gates open constantly checking for approaching trains as I got to the other side I heard the gate behind me close and turned round to see Graham riding his bike he hadn’t dismounted naughty boy. I told him that there was CCTV and you might even get a fine, but I don’t think he will really. We continued on down Oaks Lane which is near my auntie’s , with Graham saying “Well I didn’t need my jumper. I’ll just put it back in the cupboard for next time”
We got to the bottom of Oaks Lane where it joins Tonge Moor Road where we needed to turn right. The traffic was horrendous but a kind man in a 4×4 stopped to our right and let us out holding all the traffic back for us. Without his help we may still have been there.
We enjoyed the downhill part on Tong Moore Road enjoying the breeze in our faces as it was still very muggy. We turned off the road and down Starkey Road to try and find the path through the woodland towards Hypatia St. We found the path with a large wrought iron gate with the words OUR BACK FIELD spelt out in the ironwork. As we looked around Graham commented that we’d only travelled a couple of miles and we’d gone from multi million dollar houses to the centre of a council estate. We followed the path and indeed it brought us out onto Hypatia Street here we took a little detour to have a look around Tonge Bridge industrial estate but then it was time to head home but not before stopping off at the grave of Fred Dibnah the famous Bolton Steeple jack. As we rode back up through Leverhulme park I said to Graham “how many people do you think are doing what we’re doing or just sat around watching the TV in the living room? “ , “ not many Pal“ Graham replied.” they don’t know what they’re missing Pal “I said to him. “You’re damn right? “Graham replied emphatically. It was now after 8 o’clock and with this in mind and to alleviate any worry from Val Graham left me at the top of the hill as we headed off on our own ways home with us both calling out “text when you own Pal” , which we always do.
