22nd June 2025 - Ride out to Foxton Locks - Ian Cain

The title of this report is misleading. After a week of scorching weather, the 22nd was cooler but still dry, ideal for a ride. However, only one rider, Elke, turned up to join me. It was the British Superbike Racing Round at Snetterton, so maybe everybody else had gone there. Who knows? Anyway, Elke and I decided that rather than go to Foxton Locks, we'd go to Wymondham (pronounced Wim-en-dem by the locals) Mill near Melton Mowbray. It's a lovely place and one of our regulars.

Good roads too, once we'd cleared Spalding and got to the hilly bits west of Bourne. Lincolnshire seems full of good rides, and the A151 is a classic. Well-surfaced, rolling hills, and lovely bends. It's very popular with motorbike riders, and there's a bikers' café just before the A1 junction at Colsterworth. Not for us though; we rode on over the A1 and through Colsterworth and soon saw a sign for the mill. Even the minor roads for the final few miles were good to ride.

The mill is a popular spot for drivers, riders, and cyclists. There's the obligatory café, outside seating, a farm shop, and a small selection of "boutique" shops. It seems to get more attractions every time we go there. Normally, when we go there, it's very busy, but it was relatively quiet when we arrived. Not much of a queue in the café and plenty of free seating outside. Coffee and cakes over, Elke persuaded a chap to take photographs of us by the windmill, so there is a group photo of the two of us, and it was time to head home.

We headed south to Oakham, round the ring road and then on past the end of Rutland Water to join the A47 at Uppingham. Even this is an enjoyable road to ride. It must be the rolling countryside. It's enjoyable, that is until it becomes the Peterborough Northern bypass, where it's a slog of unremarkable dual carriageway. After that is an equally boring road all the way to King's Lynn.

I'd read in our local paper that there is an intention to make the A47 a 50MPH limit all the way from Peterborough to King's Lynn, except for the dual carriageway stretches. Sure enough, the stretch from Wisbech to King's Lynn is now restricted to 50 except for the dualled stretch. I've written before about the Scottish government's intention to reduce the national speed limit on single carriageways to 50MPH; it's almost happening by stealth in England as well.

Ian Cain