Under the Arches and around the Water - in reverse

Chris Tudball, Monday, 4 August 2025

Rather than try and dream up a new route I decided to take the easy option and ride last year’s Barnsdale rideout route in reverse. The other way round, that is, not backwards! After checking it out a couple of times we decided that it was a goer.

A warm day with some cloud cover greeted us as a full complement of fifteen riders met up at Café Nero in Rugby, the turnout, as an organiser, being much appreciated.

I apologised in advance for some of the more ‘undulating’ sections of tarmac en-route especially so to one of our party who was riding a pretty committed sports bike. He replied that I shouldn’t worry and that the bike tends to finds bumps even where they don't exist!

After a prompt 9.30 start we headed up towards and briefly along the A5, before turning off onto a series of B roads leading us into North Kilworth. After a ½ mile or so, we turned off once again onto the series of sometimes bumpy B roads running roughly parallel to the A4304 Lutterworth to Market Harborough road passing through Sibbertoft and Kelmarsh and a particularly picturesque section of parkland coming out of Arthingworth before skirting Desborough via the A6. I had mentioned at the briefing that they were reasonably flat as long as you rode the central white line, and that, generally, on our check rides they appeared to be quiet enough to safely do so.

Coming off the B576 towards Stoke Albany, following a Ford Transit pick-up truck, I had a slight whiff of diesel which I duly noted and checked for signs of on the road. Nothing there so I assumed it must just be fumes from the truck itself. Further on we came to a give way junction followed by a slight left hander and there on the road was a massive puddle of diesel, a metre wide and four or five metres in length at least! Fortunately, it was quite visible, (as you can imagine) and we all managed to avoid it.

Onwards via Rockingham and Gretton, which boasts as having the tallest church tower in Northamptonshire, to Harringworth and its famous viaduct, the longest in the UK. At its peak it had a workforce of 3,500 and they laid in the region of 30 million bricks building the 82 arches of the 1,275 yard long viaduct. Work commenced in 1876, and it opened for rail traffic in 1880. Passing under the viaduct three times, our route gave us a reasonable opportunity to admire this marvellous example of Victorian civil engineering and their “can do, no expense spared” attitude to overcoming obstacles.

From here it was a shortish dash south of Rutland Water via the intriguingly named village of Edith Weston to our destination, Barnsdale Gardens. (Incidentally, the village was named after Edith of Wessex (1029-1075) who was the Queen of Edward the Confessor. If nothing else, writing up ride reports for tends to lead to a broadening of your knowledge base!)

On arrival we were shown to our spot in the gardens itself where a couple of very efficient waitresses set up our table for fifteen. Orders were taken and fulfilled in record time too, in a very pleasant setting.

The gardens were founded 1983 by Geoff Hamilton and it was from here that he presented his own TV show, Gardener’s World.

Our return trip completed the circumnavigation of Rutland Water before entering Uppingham with its Public School, pupils of which include, amongst others, John Schlesinger, Jonathan Agnew, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Jackman, to name but a few.

From there we took that well known biking road, the B664 with its twists and turns, ups and downs and scenic views (if you have time to look at them) avoiding Market Harborough by riding through Great Bowden where I took a wrong turn and took the group on a two mile detour hoping that the satnav would reroute, but it would not play ball. So, it was an about turn to retrace our route and eventually get back on course.

We continued past Gartree maximum security prison and Foxton locks, skirting Bruntingthorpe before retracing our route back to Cafe Nero.

Unfortunately, there Sandra managed to pick up a 30mm wood screw that inserted itself squarely in her rear tyre. It then deflated completely. We tried to plug it but according to the recovery guy it was “too flat” for the plug to seal effectively. On the plus side we sat outside the café in the sunshine and waited around two hours for him to turn up which, when compared to our previous breakdown experience was no time at all!