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 Cycling Around Chippenham |
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Cycling Around Chippenham |
       
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There is some great cycling around Chippenham with beautiful scenery along the way but just a few words of caution. Both Sustrans and NWDC publish maps of the Chippenham area showing a number of cycle routes but only the North Wiltshire Rivers Route can justifiably be called a dedicated cycle way. For the most part the remainder of the routes shown on their maps are nothing more than a strip of green tarmac on the existing roadway often not wider than your handlebars. Many of the roads shown do not have any markings on the ground, just direction pointers at intervals. Fifty years of cycling tell me that in a straight fight, green paint and a white line are no match for the front of a milk tanker. I have the scars. So choose your route with care. |
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Starting from Chippenham Town Bridge the section of the North Wiltshire Rivers Route towards Lacock is a pretty ride over hard surfaces. Some packed gravel and some undulating tarmac. A safe ride with some great scenery. It passes the Pewsham Locks section of the Wilts & Berks Canal which a happy band of volunteers are endeavouring to restore.
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Also starting from the Town Bridge but towards Calne the route for the most part is along the track of the old Chippenham to Calne railway line. There are some great views and most of the surface is firm, but in a section beyond Stanley Bridge overhanging trees prevent the ground from drying out, the narrow strip of indifferent tarmac dissapears under mud and leaves.
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Sustrans makes much ado about the flagship section of cycle path between Bath and Bristol which is flat, all tarmac, and passes conveniently near to shops, car parks, picnic areas and toilets, but out here in the sticks, life is not so luxurious. Beyond Calne to Avebury is for the adventurous! There are on road sections which are fine but Sustrans can hardly claim any credit for those. Many of the off road sections are either steep and rutted, steep and covered in loose shale or just too steep for the old or very young. At one point it reduces to tyre marks in the grass around the edge of ploughed fields. No surface at all in fact. Then there's the iron foot bridge. Up steep steps, over the conveyor belt serving the gravel pit, down steep steps. All designed when this was just a foot path, and no use at all if you have a bike with straight handlebars getting caught in the hand rails and a set of panniers which don't want to defy gravity. |
Undeterred a recent cycle ride to Avebury took me past a part of Yatesbury RAF camp I had not seen for over 50 years.  |
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yourguide@zetnet.co.uk
Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in yourguide to Chippenham is correct, neither the guide nor its contributors can be responsible for any loss due to errors or omissions. Inclusion in yourguide does not imply recommendation. Yourguide reserves the right to refuse entries.
Cycling in and around Chippenham means The North Wiltshire Rivers Route which is a part of National Cycle Route 4. Created by North Wiltshire District Council and Sustrans, it is managed by North Wiltshire District Council in partnership with Calne & Chippenham Town Councils and Sustrans.