Search28 May: Saffron Walden and Baythorne End
Saturday 6 June 2026
Julian writes: Thursday's City ride was to Baythorne Hall, via the Temeraire in Saffron Walden. We expected heat and a stiff breeze, and we got heat, a very stiff breeze and road closures.
How many road closures? Six, possibly more – we stopped counting at six. All but one could be walked around, but Coploe Hill was fully closed for re-surfacing. We took a flat, but unpleasant detour along the London Road (surely not a B road?) to Saffron Walden. Very busy with HGVs and into that "stiff breeze" (see below). Not fun. But if Coploe Hill gets a new smooth surface, from top to bottom, we won't have suffered for nothing. None of us were sensible enough to ask the man at the bottom of the hill how long the work is going to take or how much would be re-surfaced (sorry).
How windy was it? Windy enough to blow the rocket garnish right off my avocado muffin even in the sheltered garden of the Temeraire. Possibly my own fault for not ordering something heavier and pork-based. But it's new on the menu so I felt I should experiment (recommended by the way). Lost garnish is not a calamity but suggests that the Beaufort scale needs to be updated for modern times. How often do you see smoke rising from a chimney to help you gauge wind-speed? Not very often. Whereas a scale that goes from "blows the froth of a cappuccino", through "can shift hefty salad leaves" all the way to "you won't be able to stay on your bike, cancel the LEL" would be more useful.
The day's route was extremely pleasant route (strong recommend). There are some very nice and quiet lanes between Saffron Walden and Baythorne, and on the return leg too. It's always a good sign when there is some grass in the middle of the road. Much of the route was new to me, and though I had GPS, my concentration isn't always laser-focused, and my companions soon realised it was worth shouting out when we needed to turn.
At Baythorne you can choose between Tarka's Café or The Pantry. The latter offers huge sausage rolls and scotch eggs. They also sell thoughtfully pre-broken meringues, at a fraction of the price of the whole ones. I thought a meringue might be a nice token to take home. I took the cheap option, on the basis that whatever I put in my bar bag would be smashed by the end of the ride anyway. Who said romance is dead? The concept of a bargain meringue was very well received (as I expected), but in reality, it was extremely sweet.
How hot was it on the day? Not enough to melt tarmac, but hot enough that we needed an unscheduled stop for ice-cream in Balsham on the way back. Despite the miles and heat, our surviving riders managed to look surprisingly cool and collected for the obligatory press shot.
Overall, for the small, select group of riders that came, it was a grand day-out. Julian Hickling
Cool cats at Balsham