May 16, 2012
Ermine Street
south of Lincoln
Roy turns up on time, but he's fully loaded. Camping is not on my agenda as the weather forecast is n't very good, but that's what he has in mind and it seems the weather will actually be nice as we cruise through Lincoln's ancient streets, the sky largely blue .
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Like yesterday, we veer east, but this time on the south side of the River Witham and through the village of Washingborough, then on to Bardney.
The landscape becomes pancake-flat and as a child it was a place I seldom rode to as it seemed like a boring spot at the end of a long straight piece of road with nothing to stop the wind.
Frank Pattterson drew a sketch of the nearby area - Wragby Fen - and his drawing simply has a tree beside the road. I reckon it will be easy to locate the place although the tree will obviously be bigger or perhaps cut down, and the trimmed hedgerow may have either been cropped or grown bushy.
We have flapjacks from the village butchers and Roy wants to eat at the adjacent village of Southrey where a pub sits on the river bank, but at the turnoff he is riding ahead and doesn't spot it. I wait for him to come back but he never does. He's obviously in his own world.
My detailed map shows a ruined abbey and I cruise to check it out.
Located down a farm track, there's now just one wall remaining. A plaque says it dates back to the 1100s, yet forty years ago Tupholme Abbey was the unlikely venue of a outdoor rock concert that featured the likes of The Who, The Beach Boys and The Small Faces.
There's only me there and a few sheep and it seems weird that a concert would have been put on in the surrounding fields and I wonder what the Beach Boys thought of it all.
I ride down a lane that looks like it might be the one Frank Patterson drew, but if it is it's changed and I can't find a similar looking spot. Nevertheless, it's a nice ride - the road is all mine and the rain holds off as I make my way south to another Patterson location.
The location along the Roman-era Ermine Street is somewhere south of Lincoln, one of the ancient Empire's most significant towns, and it takes a while to get there, riding over Nocton Fen and up onto Dunston Heath with dark clouds threatening rain, which thankfully never comes.
Only short sections of Ermine Street are paved and the recent rain has left the track rutted. I bounced along, constantly looking out for the elevated vantage spot that Frank Patterson drew all those years ago.
It's said to be at a section named Temple Bruer, where knights of the Temple built a base, but I never find the exact spot and say to myself that I'll have to ride out again to find it, setting off directly towards it next time, instead of doing a mini tour of Lincolnshire first.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,857 km (1,774 miles)
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