Take the Lanes
It’s important to take things easy just now, says Carol Parsons, after one of her regular exercise / shopping trips up and down Sheffield’s hills, on a 1980s steel framed bicycle.
“It’s the joy of slow travel. You notice things you wouldn’t see in a car, the dates of old cottages, the names of roads, and old postboxes for example. It’s nice to just cycle slowly and look out for these things.”
After launching their Glory Days Bikes company eight years ago, in a normal springtime Carol and partner William Alves would be planning a season of led bike rides round the Peak District, or hiring out their stable of 40 ‘heroic’ British made steel touring bikes, many built over 35 years ago.
But under the Covid-19 lockdown, they’re giving their bikes a thorough tune up instead, and then taking them for short rides around their home in south Sheffield.
“We’re staying local, so one day we planned an interesting route to the bakery using ‘lanes’ we found on Google Maps, and found that those lanes seemed so much older than the surrounding roads,” said William.
“We realised often they were an old road connecting one place to another, like Sharrow Lane or Fulwood Lane, or a route like Psalter Lane which brought in the salt from over the Pennines.”
A lane is often a very old narrow track or travel route, says Carol, and some Sheffield lanes are no longer roads but bridleways or byways, like Fenney Lane and Coit Lane near Whirlow, or the old Totley Lane between Totley and Bradway. (Bridleways are tracks that can’t be used by motor vehicles, but can be travelled on foot, by bike or on a horse.)
“We’ve called these routes ‘lost lanes’ and as we follow them around, you can see how Sheffield really was a series of villages with these old roads connecting them,” says Carol. “Some, like Fenney Lane, are actually sunken hollow ways, dating back to the 1700s or before.”
Their inspiration was the ‘Lost Lanes’ series of books by fellow cycle tourist Jack Thurston, who’s mapping out cycle routes across the UK on quiet lanes and tracks.
Carol and William usually combine their own lost lane explorations with a shopping trip to their favourite small local shops, using bike panniers for their shopping.
“We’re seeing a lot more families out on bikes or walking now, and I think it would be good for us all to do more of our shopping locally,” says Carol. “You can usually get what you need and I find you often don’t have to queue up so much just now.”
The routes the pair choose are often very hilly, challenging but not insurmountable for touring bikes with 10 or 12 gears only.
But they reckon that taking time to plan a nice route to your favourite provisioners is worth the trouble, whether your bakery or greengrocer is in the village of Sharrow, Totley or Nether Edge.
“It makes the journey fun and practical when you choose an interesting route to both get your exercise and pick up the bread and milk,” says William. “And your emergency biscuits, of course.”
“You can look for clues that you’re on an old lane, like an old oak or elm tree in a wall or hedge, or old farms or cottages from the 1800s surrounded by 1930s housing,” says Carol.
“If you’re on a School Lane you can look for the old school, or you can find things like an old Victorian postbox in the wall, like the one on David Lane in the Mayfield Valley, where there might have been a busy village in the past,” says William.
All parts of Sheffield have their heritage waiting to be discovered, says Carol.
“The history of your landscape is there, wherever you live. You just have to look for it.”
As the Covid-19 measures continue, it’s worth us all taking time to reconnect with our local surroundings, says Carol
“I think it might lead to new habits, with people discovering what’s on their doorstep and walking and cycling more,” she says. “It might be that we’ll never be the same again.”
See: https://glorydays.cc