Spalding to Kings Lynn

May 9, 2022

a morning train south and a ride through Wisbech

My alarm is set for 7:20 and I'm out the door and pedalling down Ferry Lane twenty minutes later. It's eight when I get to the station and pay £16 for a ticket to Spalding, leaving me with enough time to get a cappuccino from the Costa on Platform 1.

There are five bikes squeezed into the train, but the others look like commuters and get off at Sleaford and it's about 9:30 when I do the same at Spalding. The sun is out and after mailing a couple of postcards in the nearby post office, I make my way through the old town centre, which is just starting to come to life. There are a few charity shops to mooch around, but nothing grabs me and after checing out a row of cottages known as Abbey Buildings that were built back in around the 14th century, it's time to make tracks.

Anchor plates on an 18th century warehouse in Spalding

Wisteria on a Georgian home (The Limes) on Double Street, Spalding

1 to 7 Abbey Buildings - dating back to the late 14th or early 15th century

Gamlyn's Almshouses on Church Street, Spalding (1843-44)

My planned route goes east from the River Welland and through a modern area of housing where I call in at a Tesco Express to get some drinks and snacks. Uniformed teens from a nearby high school are congregating and soon after getting back on my bike a narrow lane called Childers' South Drove takes me over a wide drain and becomes a rough track. It already feels like this is an adventure.

It's not long that I realise I forgot to check out Spalding's most important sight - Ayscoughfee Hall and Gardens. It seems like too much trouble to double back. I kick myself. Twit.

This is the fens and it's flat and quiet with fields planted with various crops and one of them is yellow rape seed which is in bloom, giving off a slightly pungent whiff as I pedal by. I eventually pass an isolated airfield appropriately named Fenland, but there not a lot else to stop and photograph as it's hard to capture much of the endless landscape from road level. There's a lot of sky and it doesn't have much cloud.

A head wind saps my energy. It's monotonous. There's nothing to stop it.

By the time my wheels roll into Wisbech, after about 35km of riding, it's well gone lunch time, but my appetite isn't great.

My first goal is to see a riverside road lining the Nene called North Brink, which boasts a continuous row of fine houses built roughly 200 or so years ago, when this port town clearly had serious wealth. My itinerary includes a visit to the most historic place named Peckover House, which was bought by a rich Quaker family (Peckover) who had made their wealth through banking. It's a three-storey home that's now run by the National Trust. It boasts a walled garden and a tea room.

The lady near the entrance asks if I'm a National Trust member and I'm not so she says I can't pay to go into the garden. That's a strange business model. It seems ridiculous.

At the end of the road, near a bridge over the river, there's a cafe named Cafe D' Licious that has a couple of tables outside and it looks inviting so I make do with a cappuccino and a wedge of chocolate cake and bask in the sunshine for a while, pondering my next move.

Riding past 17th century Reed Cottage on the northern edge of Wisbech

One of two Jacobean-Gothic revival houses built by Algenon Peckover between 1854 & 1860

There are other various buildings to see in Wisbech, and I ride around a splendid elliptical circus of Georgian town houses like a miniature one of the famous example in Bath. The castle is closed, but the adjacent church has some nice old headstones that I take a snap of.

Wisbech has places to stay, but it's still early in the day (2:00) and I bite the bullet and opt to keep cycling and get to Kings Lynn, to the northeast. Thankfully the wind is no longer in my face and it's all flat fenland in this part of the world - between southern Lincolnshire and west Norfolk - as without anything substantial to eat all day, I'm soon running on E.

Gravestone outside St Peter and St Paul's Church

Riding along Gravel Bank - northeast of Wisbech

A bike path leads me north into town via the South Quay. The centre is just a block or two away and I call in at one hotel that is full and the other in the square wants £140 for a single room.

I know there are guesthouses somewhere close by, so off I go in search of them and eventually, after getting a bit confused, a man I ask tells me about a nearby pub called the Lord Napier and the landlady there says she has a room vacant and it's 40 quid, so I've just saved myself a ton.

It's pretty basic, but clean and once I've taken stock and had a shower, the landlady recommends an Indian restaurant just five minutes' or so walk away, so that's where I head for dinner.

For some reason the restaurant's card reader won't accept my Visa and it's just as well I have enough cash on me. After paying, I stroll into town to find an ATM and my legs certainly feel it and by the time I make it back to the Lord Napier, a pint is in order.

There are only men in the pub - about 30 or more. There's football on TV and about half a dozen guys are playing darts. The beer hits home and one pint is enough. Bed is calling my name.

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 290 km (180 miles)

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