Revised route: Beginners’ Brickworks tweaked for 2022

Have you ever had a “why didn’t I think of that before” moment while looking at the route for one of your favourite rides? On the Beginners’ Brickworks route, two niggling moments at Bollington have just been solved.

The first is a complete change to the link from Middlewood Way to the familiar Cheshire Cycleway route above the town. I’ve always enjoyed taking a longer loop down to Kerridge and back but, wanting to avoid that zig-zag ramp and provide a bit of variety, plumped for Grimshaw Lane in the original version of the route.

It’s not an awful lane, but climbing sharply from the one-way traffic lights below the narrow canal aqueduct isn’t a very pleasant way to start the road riding (above all, just a bit boring).

Suddenly, I stumbled on a better idea: wiggling over to the scenic Macclesfield Canal, then climbing the much more peaceful Hurst Lane. All, remarkably, joined together here with no steps and basic gates rather than barriers.

A little later, looking at the roundabout atop the B5090 Palmerston Street, which has a naff raised centre that can be driven over but could prove tricky on a bike, another surprise. A couple of lanes actually link around the back between Church Street and Ingersley Road, meaning the roundabout can be omitted entirely. How didn’t I (or whoever signposted the Cheshire Cycleway) spot that?

I’ve updated the website guide, downloadable Pocket Guide and all the route navigation files with these new tweaks.

For the custom map, I’ve added new detailed pop-out boxes for both Bollington and High Lane, making these wigglier sections of the route clearer to follow.

On the website page, there’s also an improved format for the main route description, giving each stage its own gallery of photos, rather than having one big photo-dump at the end. It takes ages to collect, sort and edit these photos, and I felt they were getting lost down there.

I’m gradually adjusting each guide to this format, hopefully making them both prettier to look at and more useful.

And as a special offer to spread the good cheer at finding new route ideas that’ve been right under my nose, I’m making the Beginners’ Brickworks Pocket Guide & GPX FREE until this Sunday!

Just click “get now” and a link to the download page will be provided. Though if you find it useful, please do consider dropping me a virtual coffee (this work took at least three!), or buying the whole Pocket Guide Collection — eight guides now and more to come very soon.

Look out for at least one other notable route adjustment soon and browse the Cycle Routes pages for those new and improved stage-by-stage route galleries as I complete them.