Change your life… get on your bike

Ernest Hemingway said that ‘it is by riding a bike that you learn the contours of a country best’. The bicycle offers freedom and speed, with total immersion in our surroundings: the sun, wind and rain, every sight, smell and sound.

I have ridden thousands of miles throughout southern England in search of the region’s best bike rides for my book Lost Lanes and here’s my selection of the 10 most tranquil, often entirely traffic-free places that are perfect for a pleasurable spin.

Windsor Great Park

‘The Royal Landscape’, as it’s billed, is a cycling paradise. The paths, which are shared with walkers, are well surfaced and mostly traffic free. From the Savill Garden, with its futuristic pavilion and 35 acres of ornamental planting and exotic woodland, there’s a five-mile lakeside circuit around Virginia Water, once the biggest man-made lake in Britain.

The ride takes in a sequence of curiosities: a colossal totem pole from British Columbia, a surprisingly big waterfall and the ruins of a Roman temple, shipped from north Africa in the 19th century. The north of the park is emptier and quiet roads through groves of trees offer commanding views over Windsor Castle and the Thames Valley.


1 The magnificent Thames Barrier 2 Whitstable for oysters and art 3 Follow the coastal, grassy path at Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex

East Kent coastline

One of the first railways to carry passengers, the ‘Crab and Winkle’ line from Canterbury to Whitstable was never a commercial success but has been given new life as a popular cycling and walking path. Pretty Whitstable is home to oysters and an arts biennale, and it’s possible to follow the seaside promenades for miles, passing through Herne Bay and eventually reaching the ruined towers at Reculver.

Head inland along lanes through the sleepy villages of Marshside and Stodmarsh to Fordwich, where a cycle path follows the course of the Great Stour back to Canterbury.

Upper Thames, Reading

The Thames Path is a perfect escape route from the centre of Reading (in either direction). A couple of miles east along quiet lanes and tracks lies Mapledurham House, a red-brick country house in the grand ‘Jacobethan’ style.

Nearby nestles a church and a working watermill, the last of its kind on the Thames. In early summer the bridleways that lead to picturesque Whitchurch-on- Thames are lined with marsh orchids, and upstream, a riverside track through the woods invites a wild swim. At Goring there are trains back to Reading, though the more energetic might follow the ancient Ridgeway up on to the Berkshire Downs, for exceptional views across Oxfordshire.

Walberswick, Blythburgh and Dunwich, Suffolk

The seaside village of Walberswick has an arty feel about it, with a pretty green, and ramshackle wooden buildings dotting the shingle beach. A raised path along the estuary leads towards Blythburgh, where stands the arrestingly grand ‘cathedral of the marshes’, a reminder of the wealth that wool brought to medieval Suffolk. Lining the timber roof of the church are angels in flight, carved in wood. From here it’s quiet back lanes through farmland as far as Dunwich, whose tiny village museum tells the story of how the city was lost to the waves.

4 Take tea at Brcokham, Surrey 5 Tranquil Whitchurch-on-Thames, Berkshire

Royal Parks, Central London 

London is the epicentre of Britain’s cycling revival and at its vanguard are the hardened commuters who speed in and out of the city. More leisurely cycling can be found in the Royal Parks on Sundays, when motor vehicles are banned from the Mall and Constitution Hill. This makes it possible to ride all the way from the Houses of Parliament to Notting Hill on broad, traffic-free boulevards and cycle paths across the parks.

Once in Hyde Park, take a break from the saddle by paddling in Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain, or visit the Serpentine Gallery, where exhibitions of contemporary art are usually free of charge. Beyond Kensington Palace is London’s ‘embassy row’, closed to through traffic but cyclists are free to admire the grandiose ambassadorial residences.

Dengie Peninsula, Essex

Essex’s pancake-flat ‘empty quarter’ is a fine destination for freewheeling cyclists. The railway terminates at Southminster, from where narrow farm tracks work their way across the fields, leading to the barn-like chapel of St Peteron- the-Wall at the mouth of the Blackwater Estuary. It’s an eerily beautiful spot and the chapel, built in the 7th century by the early missionary St Cedd, is among Britain’s oldest churches.

Along the headland a grassy path leads to idyllic sandy beaches that are superb for swimming. Just inland, the twin hulks of the Bradwell nuclear power station lie dormant, a modern counterpoint to the chapel from 14 centuries earlier.

Jubilee River, Berkshire/ Buckinghamshire

The tangle of railways, motorways and suburban sprawl to the west of London can make peaceful cycling a challenge but the Jubilee River provides a scenic, easy-going and entirely traffic-free ride all the way from the southern edge of Slough, to Maidenhead. If the Jubilee River sounds unfamiliar that’s because it’s just a few years old, built as a giant flood-control measure. The mechanical diggers are long gone and nature is now firmly in charge. The wildflower displays in early summer are sensational, and bird-spotters lurk in the reed beds and wet woodland in the hope of seeing green woodpeckers, cormorants, lapwing and red kites.

6 Walberswick in Suffolk has a bohemian air of mystery about it 6 Pause in the shade of the tree-lined Thames Path near Goring

Thames Path, East London

The Thames Path west from the Woolwich Ferry offers some of the most spectacular and unexpected views of London, and they’re best appreciated from the saddle of a bicycle. The path hugs the river and despite near-continuous building work around the Millennium Dome it’s possible to ride all the way to Greenwich, through the Naval College to the newly remodelled Cutty Sark Gardens.

Return by riverboat or forge onwards, taking the foot tunnel to the north bank and the Isle of Dogs for yet more grand vistas, including a close encounter with the gleaming glass towers of Canary Wharf.

Deepest Surrey

The 2012 Olympic road race brought the world’s best professional cyclists to Box Hill and cemented the reputation of the Surrey Hills as a magnet for the Lycra-clad speedsters on carbon-fibre racing machines. To the south lies more gentle terrain of farmland, lanes and villages – none more attractive than Brockham. The village is favoured by less calorie-conscious cyclists because of the excellent afternoon teas on the village green on Sundays, between April and October. The centre of attention is the long trestle table groaning with homemade cakes. In spite of its proximity to London, this corner of Surrey retains a rural charm. Long may it remain so.

Rother Valley, West Sussex

The Rother Valley presents visitors with a certain idea of England: cricket on village greens, warm beer and – if you’re lucky – old maids cycling through the morning mists to Holy Communion.

After gorging on the magnificent Turner paintings at Petworth House, head south beyond the A272, through Selham with its Saxon church and into a tangle of increasingly narrow lanes in the lee of the South Downs. The sublime landscape reaches a climax at the lonely ‘shepherds’ church’ near Didling. A primitive stone building, where evening services are conducted by candlelight, it feels like another era.

Lost Lanes: 36 Glorious Bike Rides In Southern England is published by Wild Things Publishing, priced £14.99, and is available in all good bookshops and online at www.thebikeshow.net/lost-lanes-shop