The Rodings and Bardfields
Discussion
Eutopia! Ok, maybe not quite but.....
Detoured on the way back to Chelmsford last night and went up to the roads around Gt Dumnow and Thaxted - the B184 and so on, from The Rodings up to The Bardfields and presumably beyond.
There are a few reasonably twisty roads around here, but usually they're all too narrow, potholed and/or poorly sighted to have any fun without driving like a loon. Yet these were wide enough, relatively smooth and in general had a half decent line of sight. Usually if you do find something like this in the South East it takes about 30 seconds to catch up a group monospeeders doing 38mph, but the big revelation here was how quiet the roads were. In several hours driving (ok, I got a bit lost
) I saw maybe 10 vehicles and a majority of those were bikes. Ok, it was 9:30 on a Sunday evening, but that's uncrowded even compared to the roads I grew up on in Devon and it's completely different to anything else I've seen in the south east.
It's also rather nice out there, particularly at dusk in an open car.
Ok, so I'm rambling a bit now, but I was genuinely shocked to find something like that 45 minutes drive from London. Thought it might be of interest to anyone local.
Anywhere else worth investigating?
Detoured on the way back to Chelmsford last night and went up to the roads around Gt Dumnow and Thaxted - the B184 and so on, from The Rodings up to The Bardfields and presumably beyond.
There are a few reasonably twisty roads around here, but usually they're all too narrow, potholed and/or poorly sighted to have any fun without driving like a loon. Yet these were wide enough, relatively smooth and in general had a half decent line of sight. Usually if you do find something like this in the South East it takes about 30 seconds to catch up a group monospeeders doing 38mph, but the big revelation here was how quiet the roads were. In several hours driving (ok, I got a bit lost
) I saw maybe 10 vehicles and a majority of those were bikes. Ok, it was 9:30 on a Sunday evening, but that's uncrowded even compared to the roads I grew up on in Devon and it's completely different to anything else I've seen in the south east.It's also rather nice out there, particularly at dusk in an open car.
Ok, so I'm rambling a bit now, but I was genuinely shocked to find something like that 45 minutes drive from London. Thought it might be of interest to anyone local.
Anywhere else worth investigating?
Yep and even further up - think I got most of the way to Safron Waldon (no map on me at the time, so can only guess based on the place names I remember)
Like I said, what shocked me was how quiet it was, almost errily so compared to most places round here. Having spent some time in other areas around the outskirts of London I'm always impressed how unspoilt some bits of Essex are in comparison. A lot of people back home in the westcountry tried to persuade me there'd be nothing but tower blocks and council flats in Essex.
Stopped in a lay-by to answer my phone, sadly it wasn't especially picturesque, but you get the idea!
Like I said, what shocked me was how quiet it was, almost errily so compared to most places round here. Having spent some time in other areas around the outskirts of London I'm always impressed how unspoilt some bits of Essex are in comparison. A lot of people back home in the westcountry tried to persuade me there'd be nothing but tower blocks and council flats in Essex.
Stopped in a lay-by to answer my phone, sadly it wasn't especially picturesque, but you get the idea!
Apparently it's "one of the most rural counties in England" dunno if that's done by median population density or something.
Can't get over how quiet it was. Must have been something good on TV that evening - it was just me and bikes mostly. Did see a couple of cars and they all seemed to be driven fairly spiritedly too. Maybe the answer is that despite being very usable roads, they're all close to the A120, which probably gets used for actual transport and the B roads for fun. It was back to normal traffic density when I joined the A130.
Can't get over how quiet it was. Must have been something good on TV that evening - it was just me and bikes mostly. Did see a couple of cars and they all seemed to be driven fairly spiritedly too. Maybe the answer is that despite being very usable roads, they're all close to the A120, which probably gets used for actual transport and the B roads for fun. It was back to normal traffic density when I joined the A130.
Hey !!! Not too much advertising of nice quite country roads please. These are for locals only.
Everybody south of Braintee is welcome to the A120 and the M25.
Last thing I want is to be interupted on my Sunday blast by an excess of Petrolheads.
PS. If your interested the Thatchers at Mount Byres is a great sunday stopping off point for a pie and a pint with a huge carpark and even bigger views over the River Stour towards Constable Country and beyond - see yer there.
Wayne
Everybody south of Braintee is welcome to the A120 and the M25.
Last thing I want is to be interupted on my Sunday blast by an excess of Petrolheads.
PS. If your interested the Thatchers at Mount Byres is a great sunday stopping off point for a pie and a pint with a huge carpark and even bigger views over the River Stour towards Constable Country and beyond - see yer there.
Wayne
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