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Pete Patton recalls an excitingly memorable journey he pedalled in about 1954 from his home at the time in Surrey.
I was about 14 and the summer holidays were long and hot in Addlestone, Surrey. I was bored with nothing to do until I had a brainwave and asked my friend Woody if he would like to cycle up to see my cousin for a week. After he agreed, I told him she lived in Derby!
The first obstacle was our parents. We persuaded them that we would be safe and then wrote to my cousin Evelyn. The wait for the reply took forever but in the meantime Woody and I spent hours each day practising for the ride of over 150 miles. The furthest we had been at the time was probably to the Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead.
Evelyn's letter arrived - we could go! Great! We bought some maps to plan our route and picked the time and date we would start out. We decided on 4.30am and everything we needed was packed into our saddlebags.
The morning dawned bright and clear. Woody arrived on time and as we left, my parents waved from their bedroom window. We cycled for what seemed like hours then stopped to ask a milkman for directions. He was delivering to a lady and when we asked for directions to Leicester, they wanted to know where we came from. When we said 'Surrey' the lady insisted we came in for breakfast! After that, we didn't want to start cycling again, but we did!
I can remember the Tate & Lyle tankers - whenever we were going up a hill and one came by we used to grab the ladders at the back and get a tow up the hill! Some of those hills were very steep! Thanks Tate & Lyle!
After a very long day we approached Derby on the A6. We saw a girl on a pushbike ahead and we just had to overtake her so we managed to pedal like mad and pass her! Just outside Derby, by the railway bridge, we saw a small tea wagon; a good place to stop for a cuppa and directions. The man running the trailer was very interested in us when he found out that we'd set out from Surrey early that morning and had been on the road for about 12 hours, so he treated us to the drinks!
We finally arrived at Evelyn's at about 5 o'clock and had some tea and a rest. That evening we went out for a walk - far from being tired we stayed out late. Sometime after 11pm we were stopped by a policeman and asked what we thought we were up to and were we were from. When we said 'Surrey' he wasn't impressed! We explained ourselves and he said that we ought to get back to Evelyn's as it was very late and we shouldn't be out wandering around the town.
After a fantastic week we decided that cycling home at night would be a good idea. We left at 4pm but by about midnight we were lost and had to put all our clothes on because it was cold. We found a telephone kiosk and decided to rest inside. After falling asleep for a while, we continued on our way and eventually found a Postal Sorting Office and got directions from there.
The lights on our bikes got dimmer and dimmer but we found road signs and pressed on until we crashed into a kerb and fell onto some grass. As we were both very tired we just lay there and went to sleep!
We were eventually woken by the noise of traffic about 5am and we found that we were on a roundabout just outside Aylesbury. Cold but keen, we set off again and made our way home, finally arriving at about half past nine. Food and sleep were all we needed!
Looking back we must have been mad, but it was worth it!
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