I planned up to meet with my friend Jeanette for a morning ride in her neck of the woods, so i got the train to Redditch and rode to her house. From there we rode to Alcester for coffee. What a lovely unspoilt town it is!
I hope it continues to escape the attention of the kind of wreckers who have recently burnt down the Crooked House pub so beloved by Brummies and Black Country people? Of course, it was claimed to be an accident so it must just be a coincidence that it releases the land for development.
We continued our tour of a few interesting and pretty spots, including a look at the old cider press in Walcott – which is the size of a barn door!
We went our separate ways in Studley and I continued to Castle which I have always been intrigued by because you can’t see if from the road. “Well worth a visit”, a local assure me. When I found it, however, it appeared to be just another very large and pretentious hotel – it had no moat or any turrets and so, to my mind at least, it wasn’t very much like a castle at all.
It was deliciously sunny all day and I stopped for a picnic opposite the church in Ullenhall, feeling that I was on holiday. My meter read 48 miles when I got home, that is because it includes the distance from Redditch Station to Aston Bank where I met Jeanette.
Ullenhall Church
LEJoG 82 