Best Flandrian Roads in the UK

Cheeky

Love riding on bleak, muddy farm roads and tracks and one day want to write a book on the best Flandrian roads in the UK.

We have a few over here in Bedfordshire, mostly aroudn Ashwell, Royston, and Duxford but where are your best ones?

And no I'm not just doing cheap research, far too bloody busy to even think about writing anything now, and after all, who'll buy such a specific book?

softlad

every non-A road around here is a bleak, muddy farm road - especially in winter. no need to look very far....

trtimothy

yeah am looking for some cobbles to ride in northern england....got to give it a go!! anyone know where any cobbled roads are??

crumbschief

Some good ones around here,Risby,West Stow and Barrow and plenty more.

sonny73

Some of the back roads of north central Kent can be pretty ropey and a few in Sussex too, especially some of the up hill South Downs roads, very 'farmy'.

grandad3

trtimothy wrote:

yeah am looking for some cobbles to ride in northern england....got to give it a go!! anyone know where any cobbled roads are??

Sheffield still got a few, many have been ripped up or tarmacced over, but still some about

disgruntledgoat

Some corkers around West Cumbria. The kind of roads with a raised arch of grass growing up the. Middle and holes either side! Silloth high street is roughly cobbled for about 3/4 of a mile, too. All the lanes round the coast are constantly windy too!

bompington

As soon as I get to see the road surfaces round here I'll let you know, it's such a long time since they weren't covered by mud, snow or ice that I've forgotten.

Bunneh

Heh my front street is cobbled, in fact most around here are. The major roads are all tarmacked now with HUGE speedbumps on them perfect for bunny hopping The tarmac roads are that screwed they may as well be cobbled, seen less holes in an Eastenders' plot.

ballspondroad

Haworth, West Yorkshire - lovely cobbled hill.

Pross

Constitution Hill in Swansea - some of you may remember it from the Tour of Britain c.1993, it looks like someone has stolen it from the Ronde

frenchfighter

That looks like a great hill to do hill repeats on.

Le Commentateur

Lanes between Dartford and Sevenoaks, particularly Knatts Valley and the Pilgrims Way. Just a bit lacking in cobbles.

Pross

frenchfighter wrote:

That looks like a great hill to do hill repeats on.

When the ToB went up there they did 3 short circuits - it was good to see the pros having to get off and push like us mere mortals It's 33% so seriously steep without having the cobbles to worry about. For hill repeats try this one in Harlech - it's apparently the steepest public road in the UK at 40% but you'll have to break the law as it is one way (down the slope!).



Sorry for going OT :oops:

AndyRubio

Old Hall Lane / Philips Park Road, Whitefield, Manchester

http://bit.ly/bOxPTt

Pure Flanders.

Also Jutland Street in central Manchester. 15% of cobbled nastiness.


http://bit.ly/9p2xVX

deptfordmarmoset

I think both the Swansea and Manchester cobbled hills photos would be good candidates for the ''photographing steep hills'' thread. It's probably the horizontal lines of the buildings that give me a strong sense of steepness.

Edit: ''Taking photos of steep hills''

andrewJohnson

That Manchester one looks good. And is just a few miles from me, might try it sometime.

Bhima

Map of cobbled roads here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&m ... 236cd4866c

There's a lot of ones in MCR Andrew, check that map.

I need to update that, as there are a lot more i've discovered recently. If you have a Google login, you can add stuff too.

disgruntledgoat

The Cross Junkie blog did a Ronde de oost Lancashire as well, it'll still be his website. 50 miles taking in every cobbled hill and muddy lane between them in East Lancs.

oscarbudgie

As well as being notorious for bike thieves, Brick Lane has some cobbled stretches

hammerite

Check out the route for the Tour of Dengie Marsh, that's supposed to be quite rough. I also think the East Midlands Cicle classic also uses some off road sections. Although I think you have to be a bit careful as some of them maybe private farm tracks that they get permission to race on - but not open to the public.

AndyRubio

Found a good one yesterday: Hinds Lane, Bury: http://bit.ly/d8TUUc

Anonymous

Swiss Hill in Alderley Edge.

deptfordmarmoset

It's taken me a week to figure out exactly what was telling me there was something wrong about this thread. Shouldn't the word be Flemish, not Flandrian? I know the French is Flandres, adj: flamand, and our Flanders comes from that.

But it's not France: the Flemish are the people who'd rather speak Flemish amongst themselves and, when dealing with visitors, would rather speak English than French.

zippypablo

get yourself to Halifax, theses's loads round there.

mercsport

Hate to stick a spoke in proceedings, but there's a pedant about. :oops:

COBBLES :



Cobbles are,...well, I can't improve on Wiki's description : " Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size. "Cobble", which appeared in the 15th century, simply added the diminutive suffix "le" to "cob", and meant a small stone rounded by the flow of water; essentially, a large pebble. It was these smooth "cobbles", gathered from stream beds, that paved the first "cobblestone" streets"

SETTS :



Setts, meanwhile, are the rectangular, worked, flattish stones that many people nowadays refer to and, mistakenly, think to be cobbles.

symo

Steep hill in Lincoln?