The furthest point east that I am going on this trip is the RSPB reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk. On multiple occasions in the early and mid 1970s, I had been a voluntary warden here, often with my friend Richard who I stayed with last week. We had a great deal of fun doing many jobs around this diverse reserve – known for its lagoon “the scrape” and its reedbeds, but it also has excellent heathland and mature broadleaf woodland. I was keen to get going from Bill and Bonk’s home in Bury St Edmunds as the forecast was for rain. Bonk rode with me for about a quarter of the 82 km distance.

I got to the Eels Foot pub in Eastbridge, next door to Minsmere and probably the place where I was most weaned onto beer, by 1300. I had booked a room and no sooner than I was in it than the heavens opened. But I was here for birding and most birds continue to be around in the rain, and I had waterproofs – albeit a jacket in fluorescent yellow – I got quite a few looks from the drably dressed birders on the reserve – Sorry all!

I skipped lunch and headed off in the rain for the reserve – figuring that I could birdwatch inside the dry hides, and hopefully the rain might stop in due course. I hired a pair of binoculars (having decided to leave mine behind to reduce weight) and set off around the scrape. I certainly got wet but managed to see nearly everything on the ‘recent sightings’ board. The scrape has not changed much since we helped construct it in the 1970s – there was though an apology for the stray bits of plastic bag that were visible in places – erosion of the overlying gravel has revealed the plastic bags that we laid to prevent/reduce vegetation growth on the artificial islands.

I had to return my binoculars at 1700, but I still had not checked the regular site for stone curlews… another relatively rare breeding bird that Minsmere’s heath makes good habitat. I was lucky enough to bump into another birder who lent me his binoculars to have a look, and bingo – three of them!

So an excellent day despite the rain. I was very pleased to see Cetti’s and Savi’s Warblers, Stone Curlew, Bittern, Bearded Tit, Avocet and the wonderful habitats of the reserve. Perhaps the oddest of all though, were three ground nests of kittiwakes – this species is usually exclusive to cliffs or cliff-like buildings.

Totals: Birds on trip 101, Distance today 88.1 km and cumulatively 970 km. Ascent today: 518 m, running to date 10705 m.

I headed north today to visit my brother Bill and sister-in-law, Bonk. My nephew Joel is also home. The roads are much (underlined) nicer as you head away from the influence of Stansted airport and London. Quieter, less hectic and back to the nice rural lanes of further west. I passed the wonderfully named Flying Rats, just down the road from Old House. This is one of the closed pubs of Dunmow and the countryside, and is named after the effect of throwing an infected wheat or barley stook into a thresher…

I passed the house that my then friend Joe Proudfoot lived in – he was an only son to a retired Naval Commander and was a couple of years older than me. He was left-handed, but went to a local school that refused to accept anyone was left-handed. As a consequence his course work suffered and he had terrible writing. He was though a bit of genius with electronics and spent much time constructing transmitters – and it was the era of pirate radio stations, and yes we used to broadcast to the locals (who knows if anyone was listening). The Proudfoots also had a television – and Dr Who was a Saturday favourite – complete with sofas to hide behind.

After a bit more pedalling (thanks to Andrew for correcting the spelling of this!), I met up with my sister-in-law Bonk who took me on a slight detour to view some closed pubs… and eventually we arrived in Bury St Edmunds. Total distance today: 68 km, running total: 881 km. Total ascent: 641 m and running total 10187 m. Still no tubs…

I have a great many memories around Great Dunmow and its vicinity. I worked in several places, so here are a few of them.

Before I worked I was at school in Dunmow and Felsted. The former junior school has gone, but the latter is still there. I used to bicycle the 6 miles to school each day, until I boarded for a couple of terms.

To finish off my visit to Dunmow, I paid a visit top the Doctors surgery. It is named after my father – quite an honour given the number of doctors that there have been in Dunmow. The senior practitioner, Dr Mike Tee, and a few of his staff were kind enough to give me a few minutes for a photograph outside.

Distances riding around Dunmow: 28 km, running total 813 km. 232 m ascent, running total 9546 m. No new tubs recently.

In 1960, we moved out of town to the north-east to a Tudor farmhouse, originally called Old Farm House, but now just Old House. The original building had been added to but the old core of the building had low beam ceilings that always a hazard to Dad, and became so to all of us as we grew taller. The garden was large and took a lot of Dad and Mum’s time to keep tidy. A thatched barn was all that remained above ground of the site’s agricultural heritage, but the footings of a much larger barn that had been destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the last war were evident close to the house (I think this barn may have been larger than the house).

One day in 1961, I arrived back from primary school to find that I had a new brother Bill, born in the house. It was a great place to grow up but as I mentioned in an earlier post, agricultural changes were making a mess of the surrounding countryside – I suspect this played a major part in my subsequent career choice.

I visited Old House again yesterday at the kind invitation of Heather and Simon. There have been at least two owners since we left in 1978 and all seem to have struggled with the layout at the back of the house. Heather and Simon have also had to contend with the listing of the house as being of historical interest. This has meant that all changes need to be approved and must add considerable complexity to the upkeep of this fine old building. Their approach has been to strip back much of the oldest part of the structure to the Tudor beams and to replace some of the new additions with oak based structures much more in keeping with the original.

The family moved to 24 Ongar Road in mid 1957. Rood End was a good start, but the family was about to get larger and a bungalow on the edge of town on the comparatively quiet Ongar Road seemed ideal. There was a big garden to play in, grading from lawns, through a vegetable patch and a small orchard to end at industrial premises occupied by a boat yard. Apparently one of my unofficial foods were snails (little boys…) found in the garden.

My pretty inseparable best friend then was Kay Stock from next door – as far as can figure out, we spent a great deal of time playing together. , sadly, have no idea what happened to her. It would be fun to find out, but in these days of privacy on Google I am not sure how I would do that.

Our dog in those days was a big black cross between a Labrador and a greyhound. His name was Friday, because he joined the family on a Friday when we were in Redruth. When I say joined, he just followed Mum and myself (in a pram) home rom the town and despite advertising, his previous owner could not be found. Mum thinks that he might have been dumped. Friday was obviously fairly attached to me, and I was to him. A large proportion of the pictures of me from that era have Friday in them. He was obviously a bit of a lad – from Rood End he apparently used to commute to the pub by the brewery on an evening and was given a drink of beer. From Rood End this was about 500m away. This continued from 24 Ongar Road (3km) and from Old House (of which more shortly (4km)). He was also very attracted by female dogs on heat, and Dad had to go and collect him on several occasions from some distance away. One night he never came back and I remember being very sad that my friend had gone.

My brother Guy (1957) and sister Jo (1959) were both born in 24 Ongar Road (an advantage of having both parents as doctors I guess!).

I paid a visit to 24 Ongar Road yesterday. It is now lived in by Lorraine and Stuart and their family who were very kind and invited me in and gave me a cup of tea or two after yesterday’s long ride, and to show me around. The fine bungalow has gone, as has the long garden, and the Stock’s house at number 22. As with much of Dunmow, “gone, replaced by houses” seems to be the mantra.

Elsewhere in Dunmow, the “gone, replaced by houses” is very obvious: the brewery and associated pub have been swept away to be replaced by the Maltings housing development. The bakery by the Doctor’s pond (named after Dr Lukin, the inventor of the unsinkable lifeboat) has become houses, as has the primary school that Guy, Jo and myself attended.

By 1960, it was time to move again though…..another episode!

This weekend is devoted the place where I was brought up – Great Dunmow in Essex. When we arrived in 1956, it was an agricultural market town connected by rail and bus to the surrounding towns of Braintree, Saffron Walden, Bishops Stortford and Chelmsford. It had a weekly livestock market, a brewery, a “bacon factory” (pig processing factory) and a nearby beet sugar factory. The population was largely rurally employed and field sizes were relatively small, with hedges and many small copses and spinneys. By the time we left in 1978 (I’d really “left” before then, to university and employment in Hull), there had been many changes. The first was the industrialisation of agriculture; field sizes grew massively as hedgerows and woodland were ripped out to make larger fields suitable for “modern” machinery. Agricultural employment decreased as small farms disappeared/were amalgamated and machinery took the place of labour. The feasibility of commuting to London and elsewhere grew as road capacity expanded and more could afford cars. The population began to become more London orientated. Just as we were leaving a previously small airstrip called Stansted was chosen to become London’s third airport – actually it was not that small as it had a long runway to accommodate US Superfortress bombers in the war, and consequently was used during Concorde’s testing.

The first building that we lived in was an old town house called Rood End, 6 Stortford Road. It was right on the main road through Dunmow, with a narrow pavement outside. The medical practice staff needed to go through our flat to reach their work-places. Not ideal. The next instalment describes where we went next….

I think today was the hottest day this year so far…so guess who chose to do the longest distance yet on this trip? From Stoke Mandeville to Great Dunmow – came in at 107 km (66.5 miles for the metrically challenged) and took me 5 hours 40 minutes and three refills of my water bottles! There were a surprising number of hills – none too long, as the route followed the Chiltern scarp line for a while. My wonderful navigation system did take me down a closed road followed by a bike lift over a stile.

The route took me across a number of north-south arteries from/to London, some used more than others.

Totals yesterday and today: 59.4 km and 340 m ascent, no tubs; 107 km, 965 m ascent, no tubs! Totals: 795 km, 9314 m. I have also realised that the total distance that I’ll do is equivalent to riding from Lands End to John O’Groats, then turning around and returning to Lands End!

A nice burst of people visited in the last 24 hours. My ride from Marlborough yesterday took me to my friends Rick and Bridge in deepest Berkshire. Richard is the only friend from Marlborough that I have kept up with. He and I went birding together then, often in a small party led by one of our teachers.

There is nothing like the feel-good of catching up with old friends, and always it is sad to leave after a short visit. My next visit was even shorter – a cup of tea or two with my friend Julie whom I have known since the early 1980s.

Then it was onwards to visit my sister in Stoke Mandeville hospital. This is one of the best facilities for helping the recovery of spinal injuries and my sister has a heavy therapy regime so visiting times are late afternoon only. It was great to see her, with definite continuing signs of improvement from her original almost total paralysis following her accident. She is sitting up much better than she was in her wheelchair

Stoke Mandeville is also the home of the Paralympics and I was staying in some of their accommodation, so got access to the facilities. Very impressive they are too – accompanied by a little museum. Many of the mascots from London 2012 were around too.

It was wonderful to see Jo again – I shall hasten back, but first a little ride must be completed….

Fifty years ago this year, I was dropped off by my parents at Marlborough College to start four years of boarding school education. I did not enjoy being away from home and did not fit in particularly well. I survived thanks to a few friends, one or two excellent teachers and by having access to the amazing countryside around the town – chalk downland and Savernake Forest being the main attractions, but we were also taken on trips to go birdwatching further away. The chalk downs also have a long human history, with the most famous local sites being Avebury and Silbury Hill. Stonehenge is not that far away and there are many Stone Age burial barrows. My favourite teacher (in Marlborough parlance: beak) was Chris Joseph, the then Head of the Geography Department. He still lives in Marlborough (more than 20 years after retiring) and was kind enough to invite me to stay with him for the night.

I was interested in the changes over 50 years. The college has become much more famous recently due to the attendance of royals and the town’s High Street also seems to be thriving with quite a few “posh” shops – in contrast to many High Street’s in Britain. The school rules have also tightened considerably. Fifty years ago anyone could wander in or out at any time. Safeguarding and child security now means that I had to be registered in advance to visit. The days where we did not need permission to ride our bikes within a 10 mile radius have gone, and even the sweet shop over the road has closed as pupils cannot go there. I am not sure that I would have survived without that ability to escape on my bike. In those days I had four 10×10 km Ordnance Survey squares to visit for the first UK breeding bird atlas. This occupied a lot of my free time in the summer term, especially on Sunday when the official requirement was to be in chapel….

Chris had been kind enough to organise for me to visit the school, and the Development Officer- Kate Goodwin had kindly offered to accompany us around (a security requirement as well). She is also going to publicise my ride on the school website (I’ll post the ink once I know it).

We visited many new builds In the past 50 years, but also the science block – now a listed building due to its early use of concrete and glass. It was here that a lot of my interest in biology was fostered – and one particular spot was where I ran a moth trap for at least two years of my time there. Some of the moths, once identified, were fed to the school’s collection of insectivorous animals!

Another of my favourite areas in the college was the old water meadows beside the River Kennet. This part of the river’s flood plain had been used traditionally to grow sweet grass for the local sheep in the spring before the downland grass had got going and in some places for growing water cress and the like, but that form of agriculture died away a century ago, leaving a fine watery wilderness. Plainly the school authorities did not like such wildness and the area is now a playing field and a car park. I wonder if the water voles are still present. Certainly the old willow tree where one of my school birdwatching friends , Chris Spray, found a Golden Oriole one day while he was “revising” is gone.

Another spot that we visited was the Mount House. This lies right on the main road, and in my time was the location for the Natural History Society. I was Secretary of said society for at least a year and one of the responsibilities was looking after the collections of moths, butterflies, bird skins and the like – and occasionally setting up little exhibitions. I also used the building as a private hide away. Most of the natural history items are long gone to Devizes museum (a good idea for better curation), and the building is now a gallery next to a new art centre – or at least some of it is. We climbed to the attic where I used to hide away to find quite a trove of fine prints – and the remains of the typesetters table from the old school printing press.

I mentioned that the High Street had changed quite a bit, but was delighted to find that the White Horse bookshop was still there – I wonder how many other independent bookshops in the country have survived 50 years? I bought several of the early New Naturalists there, so was delighted to note that they still had some on sale, albeit in a glass case due to their value. At least two of my New Naturalists came from book tokens won as prizes in the school.

I mentioned good teachers earlier. The man that supervised the Natural History Society was called Beverly Heath. He also took us on bird-watching excursions, usually to places like the New Forest or Poole Harbour, but once to the Camargue in south France. He was a good and very sensitive teacher. I was appalled to hear that he had died in the local hospital due to hospital-acquired infection when he had no family to advocate for him. This should not be happening in modern day Britain.

So thoughts after visiting my school. I have gained in respect for the teachers who had to put up with a wide variety of privileged teenagers – all were working to get the best out of us. I also respected more the business side of running and developing a school – Chris told me of many difficult decisions that had been made (some right, some wrong). I still remember some pretty horrible boys though and I guess that memory will be difficult to ever erase. I do though have at least one good schoolboy friend from my time there – more of that next time.

Answer to where I was in picture – third row back, right of centre – with a centre parting!

Distance today: 49.9 km, ascent 540m, 2 tubs

Many have now asked me where my overall route when bicycling Britain will take me, so here it is:

The complete distance is around 2800 km (= c 1800 miles). The geographers among you will recognise that there are a few more hill climbs to come….(but that the next little while is comparatively easy