Mill roof collapse

Blackburn increased in size and population during the 1800's due to expansion of the cotton industry. The town became famous for the many mill chimneys dominating its sky line. Now, nearly all the chimneys are gone, along with most of the weaving and spinning. Many of the mill buildings are still standing but are used for other purposes.

My cycle route to work passes a couple of mills, one of which is Carr Cottage Mill. Part of the building has been derelict for some time. In July, the roof collapsed leaving the road-side boundary wall unstable. This is the part adjoining Florence Mill but the other (undamaged) part of Carr Cottage Mill houses a process plant business. One carriageway of the main A666 Whalley New Road has been closed for safety whilst the owners of the building sort it out. It looks like the whole lot is coming down but it's too early to tell. We'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile the traffic lights mean a small to delay to commuters, including me (he wrote, being a good law abiding citizen).


I looked for some information on the history of the mill. It appears previous owners of the mill were bankrupted in the 1800's when there was a cotton famine caused by supply shortages during the American civil war. During that time, many workers existed on welfare handouts of food and fuel and temporary jobs labouring.

Spontaneous Critical Mass

What a great advert for cycling and one that organisers of local cycling awareness events must be jealous of, when a star of cycling invites one and all for a spontaneous group ride and 300 riders turn up. Lance Armstrong had a lot of new friends today after he organised a short ride around Paisley, near Glasgow. He set the time and place and said everyone welcome. Paisley's cycling advocacy received a serious spike as the group brought traffic to a standstill.


It was also a great demonstration of the power and influence of social networks as Lance Armstrong's Twitter invite connected direct with his fans.


BBC News: news.bbc.co.uk

Scottish TV: sport.stv.tv

T'was not to be

Brave effort, but the LEJOG tandem record remains unbroken as James Cracknell and Rebecca Romero called it a day north of Lockerbie this morning due to injury. My knees have been giving me jip on long rides, but I can't imagine what kind of pain Rebecca Romero was in after cycling over 24 hrs.

I hope they have another go - but carry a GPS tracker next time. Their efforts are great publicity for cycling and engaging followers with an interactive web application is great for drawing more audience. Thanks for the tweets guys.

Another great day for British Cycling

I've been absorbed by the Tour de France for the last three weeks watching as the story unfolded with each day's drama. Today in Paris, Cav finished off an incredible tour with his 6th stage victory that also saw Wiggo roll in a very impressive 4th in the GC. That's not to belittle the achievements of the other riders in any way, just that it made it all the more enjoyable to watch from the Brits' standpoint with what is the best result since the 80's. I started out with the intention of seeing how Lance's comeback would fare and ended up enthralled by the strategies, breakaways and politics each day. Now I'm looking forward to next year's when there will be completely new British and Livestrong/Nike teams.

Sir Chris Hoy to get people cycling

As a comeback from injury, Sir Chris is going to do a 'Pedal Power' sponsored cycle ride from John O'Groats to Land's End and in conjunction with the supermarket chain Asda, fund community based cycling projects. With Chris Hoy having such a high profile, this is bound to have a positive impact even for recreational cycling in the UK. The other good thing about it is the funds will be distributed by the Bike Club Consortium led by the CTC, whose balanced view also includes sharing the road as well as alternative route provision.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/

www.justgiving.com/asdapedalpower

PC is so PC he won't get on a bike

A charity providing bikes for police community work failed to get a policeman on a bike at a photo shoot because he hadn't been trained.
Rules are rules and must be adhered to. A bit embarrassing for all concerned though

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

In the news

Talking Cycling
Today University of Bolton held the fourth in a series of conferences entitled 'Encouraging cycling conference'.

Potholes...
Also at the Bolton conference, the subject of potholes was to be discussed. Bolton appears to have a problem similar to neighbouring Blackburn in that many roads are breaking up and becoming dangerous to cyclists. I've heeded the CTC's advise and been reporting a number of holes, some of which have been filled, some still remain.

The subject of potholes is a serious matter and one that councils need to respond to. The cost may not just be repairs (£76m in Bolton) but also compensation for injured cyclists. Recently a CTC member who was injured when he hit a pothole was been awarded £7,600 in compensation. The cyclist took advantage of the CTC Accident Line.

Cyclinks #2

Stuff related to cycling.

Potty cycle lanes
Blackburn cycle lanes have been much in the news of late. with usual comments from disaffected residents. Not new news, but the debate rages on.


Gisburn Forest update
Singletrackworld reports even more investment in Gisburn forest. The Forestry Commission is putting £60,000 into cycling trails. Overall that's £180,000 total investment under the umbrella of Ribble Valley Sports and Physical Activity Alliance (SPAA), with £60,000 coming from Sport England via lottery funding, £60,000 from project partners, who are: Gisburn Forest Volunteers, the Forest of Bowland Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty, Ribble Valley Borough Council, Ribble Valley Strategic Partnership, United Utilities and the Forestry Commission and now a futher £60,000 'in-kind' investment from the Forestry Commission in materials. Also reported in the Telegraph and cycling news sites.
Facebook group for the Gisburn trails. This is where to find out when trailbuilding is happening and where to go if you want to volunteer. A mailing list exists for volunteers. Subscribe by emailing Martin.Charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk Oh, and the main message about the new trails is to stay off them until they're bedded-in.

Photos:Nigel Pilling

Lee Quarry
Dave Hygarth has put up a website about Lee Quarry over near Bacup. I'm somewhat ambivalent about these boilerplate 'community' social sites as they over use scripting and end up pretty slow. They also spring up in parallel with communities that already have a social site. Lee Quarry seems pretty specific though.
Brownbacks (what a name) are organising two series of four races each at Lee Quarry, the first being sponsored by Hope.
Also running a race at Lee, Singletrack magazine are getting in on the action in July. Lee Quarry official info.

SIS launch organic nutrition
Science in Sport suppliers to the British Cycling team and based down at Brockhole near Blackburn. The photo below is entrance to Brockhole Village as I passed tonight.

School's Out

This week is when local schools are on holiday. This is the frame for the new school at St.Stephen's Little Harwood. This steelwork has taken about three week's to erect and now shows the outline of what shape the building will be.

Plane Street

After years of being bounced around on the terrible surface of Plane Street at Bastwell, it is finally being resurfaced.

I've reported a number of potholes along this busy road between Little Harwood and Blackburn. Some have been filled but Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council have finally admitted defeat as the bits joining all the repairs have eventually crumbled away.

The surface is lifting off in places and is badly cracked in others. Work started this week on setting the pavements ready for a new road surface. This is good news.


I hope Whalley New Road (A666) will get the same treatment soon as that has deteriorated badly over the winter months. I'll post some pictures soon of some of the potholes there as I'm reporting them on www.fillthathole.org.uk. The observant wll notice from the sign that Plane Street has been designated a 'Clean Street'. Is that because of the constant battle with the rubbish dumped there?

"A Fantastic Year For Cycling"

Chris Hoy couldn't have put it better on being awarded BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2008. Britain showed how proud it is of the British Cycling team by voting for him. The team scooped three awards in a field full of impressive sporting achievements. Their performances brought pleasure and excitement to a vast audience many of whom never ride a bike. Hopefully it will encourage a few more people to get in the saddle and discover the enjoyment of cycling. Well done and thanks to the British Cycling Team.

Rail works

The Blackburn to Clitheroe railway line is closed until the 27th November.


The rails, sleepers and gravel bed are being replaced.


The work is continuing through the night.

Skew Bridge incident

Tonight, on the way home the A666, Whalley New road was blocked by an articulated trailer that had become wedged under Skew Bridge.


Police were on hand to help sort it out whilst traffic worked its way round the obstacle.


Skew Bridge is one of the many low bridges that occasionally catch out higher vehicles. Often it's double decker buses that are prone to hitting the lower bridges although this one is just about high enough for them.

Cycling demonstation towns announced

The winning bids in the Government's £100m investment in cycling has been announced. Bristol is going to be the 'Cycling City' getting £11.4 to invest in cycling infrastructure and training. This figure will be matched by local funding seeing the Bristol area having £23m to spend on cycle lanes and training for children and adults.

Following the cycling city are the eleven cycling demonstration towns. These have now been announced and are:

• Blackpool (nearest to here ~25 miles)
• Cambridge
• Chester
• Colchester
• Leighton/Linslade
• Shrewsbury
• Southend on Sea
• Southport with Ainsdale (next nearest)
• Stoke
• Woking
• York.

Let's look forward to seeing these beacons as examples for our local councils who can aspire to provide matching facilities.

Rolling in the river

I had already penned a small blog entry about how nothing much seems to have been going on along the roads of my commute. I've been busy commuting every day in most pleasant weather and racked up, on average, about 100 miles a month (not much added to the 2.5 mile journey there!). Before I could post that entry, the daily landscape was transformed. This week I've noticed more activity going to and from work. I've seen more cyclists, perhaps because of 'Bike to Work Week' but maybe just new commuters because of the fuel prices - today's new find was a guy on a Hewitt, a rather nice looking tourer.

It rained heavily most of the day today. I can't remember a time, even in winter, when I got so wet. It had an effect on the motorists as well as Psychalist was on the scene of this incident this evening to practice his photojournalism. A driver of a Mitsubishi Shogun demolished the wall on Beechwood Road and rolled his vehicle into the River Blakewater. No other vehicle appeared to be involved. I didn't stop to interview anyone as it was raining hard. The police had the road blocked and were keeping people away whilst waiting for the recovery truck.

Local towns make shortlist

Out of sevety four towns appying for Cycling City, Cycling Towns programme, which is set to receive some of the government's £140m cycling funding, two local towns have made the shortlist: Blackpool and Southport. No mention of Blackburn.

Source: Cycling England

Gun touting trio get 31 years

I like to think my commuting route is as safe as I can make it. Normal hazerd perception doesn't run to considering shootings. Last year there was an incident at Bastwell where shots were fired at a house. On Monday, three men got between 8 and 13 years each for their crime.

Road Clear

Bethell's Surfacing Division were on site all last week to add the tarmac to the Philips Road culvert repairs. The place was positively buzzing with activity as they must have more than doubled the number of personnel on site.


Having prepared the road foundations earlier in the week, the whole roadway was planed in preparation for the top surface. The climax to week 35 was Friday when the top surface was laid. In the space of one day the works were transformed.


For the May Bank Holiday weekend the traffic lights were removed and two lane working restored after nearly 9 months of 'expected delays'.



The job is more or less complete apart from some landscaping and clearing up, taking the total time to 36 weeks. It took six weeks longer than planned and started two weeks late, but will soon be forgotten once the grass is grown and the trees are planted (BwD will plant some trees, won't they?). This will be the final post about the Blakewater culvert for a while.


When the landscaping is complete, I may just add a final picture. Meanwhile I'm glad to be able to cycle freely down the road.

The end is nigh

Not long now. Major changes down at the road works this week. Gone are the safety fences. The kerbs are all in place as is the wall round the parapet. The footpath is prepared. Now we just need the tarmac. Will next week (34) be the last? Tune in next week to find out!

Keyhole surgery

Following on from the previous post regarding the pipeline colour theme, you can see the gas pipes being replaced on the A666 near Brownhill. Yellow in colour to signify natural gas. These are being assembled above ground before being pushed down into the ground inside the old gas pipe that is already buried. This saves digging a great long trench. Amazing what you can see from a bike!