Bike Rides

In the Summer and Autumn terms pupils took their bicycles to school and went out on Wednesdays (Seniors) and Thursdays (Juniors)  for bike rides to lakes, tarns and mountains. Some very nice photographs of the surrounding area can be found at http://www.lakelandeye.co.uk/lakes2009/jan_09/20-1-09.html

The roads were much less busy in those days, occasionally a car approached and whoever saw it first was responsible for shouting out "CAR" to the others and if the road was narrow  they stopped to let it go past.

Junior bike rides – Elter Water, Loughrigg, Rydal, Skelwith Force, Tarn Hows, Windermere

Senior bike rides – Coniston, Rydal caves, Grasmere, Thirlmere, Langdale, Helvellyn, Scafell

Major Butler and Mr. Newby with a group of boys on ?? Fell in Summer 1959.

(Taken by Stewart Sutcliffe using a Kodak Duo 620 compact bellows camera.)

Preparing for a bike ride whilst others play cricket by the boathouse.                                  Rydal caves, 1967

Preparing to ride to and climb Helvellyn, 1967.

Occasionally a bike ride would stop at the Drunken Duck pub for (non-alcholic) refreshments.

A former pupil (1947-1953) wrote:

"We each had our own bike at school, sent PLA (Passengers' Luggage in Advance) from home every term and it was important to keep is maintained for The Bike Rides, so fiddling around with bikes was a significant free time occupation. The Bike Rike was a major event, looked forward to by all of us - an outing with a difference, and there were strict rules for them, especiially on those extremely narrow Lake District roads. We had to keep a cricket pitch distance from the person in front and call "Car!" if a car was overtaking the column from behind. I suspect our lives were saved by the fact that cars were few and far between in those days. When we got to the chosen mountain, we simply left our bikes and set off up, dressed in well-polished black walking shoes, stockings, short trousers and "lumber-jackets" (corduroy) over our grey shirts. Curiously, I never remember being either cold or wet, since we were actually badly prepared for either eventuality, especially at 3000 feet or whatever up Scafell Pike or something. I do remember being thirsty though. We had no water on hot days and were absolutely not allowed to touch stream water - just as well when we saw the dead sheep further up the stream. Occasionally we were allowed to skinny dip in a stream or a tarn but - of course - we were without towels. Some food was dished out at the top (though goodness knows how it got there) before we started the descent. The prevailing mood was always one of great hilarity as some of the photos record. We got back to our bikes (that had been left unlocked - theft being unheard of) and cycles x miles happily back to school, occasionally shouting "Car!" up the line to each other."