Travellers’ tales: Cycling to Land’s End and back again

By Cycling UK
A scan of an old black and white photo. Two men are standing underneath the Land's End sign with their bikes. They are wearing normal clothes and shoes: shorts and a T-shirt and shorts, shirt and sweater. In the background you can see the sea and a cliff. The sign points left and reads New York with 3147 underneath and right and reads Selby with 391 underneath.
Barry Bentley and David Walker at Land’s End
Cycling UK member Barrie Bentley recalls a 1957 journey to and from England’s south-western tip

John Holmes’s article about his 1973 tour to and from Land’s End brought back fond memories of my own tour with a close pal, David Walker.

Why did we make the trip? Well, in 1957 it was affordable and exotic. If you asked anybody in Selby where they were holidaying it would likely be Filey, Brid(lington) or, if posh, Scarborough. People of a more adventurous turn would say Devon and Cornwall.

We obtained much advice on essential items to carry from members of Selby CC. We didn’t take any advice about gearing. As can be seen from the photo, we did it on 66-inch fixed. There was much walking and cursing.

I shudder at the thought now, even though we took only a saddlebag for essential clothes and spares for breakdowns. We stayed at youth hostels and B&Bs.

Our route down from Selby (and back) was on A-roads as traffic density was light in those pre-motorway days. I suppose we must have covered over 800 miles in 14 days. One incident that stands out was a crack developing in my headset.

A gentleman at a garage in Salcombe repaired the crack by brazing it and only charged a shilling. He saved my holiday.

I now enjoy my e-cycling in relatively flat East Anglia with a delightful bunch of guys and gals from Diss CTC.

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