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The M4 corridor


Oldbury nuclear power station, if you're interested. A hercules passing overhead. A modern housing development on what was Filton airfield. The road, which used to skirt the outside ... The remains of Filton airfield. Filton is where the British Concordes were built. This was the last one that ever flew. My cycling days have been going on quite late recently. If you include my shopping trip yesterday ev... I know this hotel. I was a best man at a wedding here a few years ago. There seems to be a shortage ... Three and a half litres of Welsh water which I've brought from Newport for no reason. I thought when... 97. Bristol Rovers... I failed to touch this ground on Wednesday but it only took a small diversion to come back for anoth... In Britain, a war memorial is normally some kind of stone obelisk, and possibly a small garden. When... The Memorial Ground. It's a lovely afternoon to sit in the sunshine and doze off with the noise of a football match going... You get a better view out of this ground than any of the others where I've watched games. The ball d... That tower is a local landmark. I assume it was meant to be a microwave relay tower. Such things are... The cycle route from the ground to my hotel passes through the Ministry of Defence office complex at... This hotel has bike parking which is partially under cover. That might become useful because it look... Either something's gone wrong or this is an extermely asymmetric Internet connection. The hotel's little water feature, with a wedding car visible through the window. I saw some people i... I think the little bridge is often used for wedding photographs. I remember it was very cold out the... I don't know why there's a security dog unit here but it gets to park in the drop-off area.... This is the sixth of nine times that I would cross this railway line within an hour. The seventh wou... Kingswood. The white notice near the middle of the picture says "PARKING ON THIS WAR MEMORIAL STRICTLY PRO... Kingswood. Wotton-under-Edge. A fancy doorway in Wotton-under-Edge. A view as I climb onto the Cotswold Ridge. That bench probably had a better view once. Cows. Some sort of monument on another hill. Looking down into the Severn Valley. Nympsfield. Nympsfield. Now we come to probably the most obscure club of the 116. If you've lived in England for a while, th... So, having seen the words "WE ARE FGR", and the word "ROVERS" on the back of the... 98. Forest Green Rovers... Forest Green seem to be trying to live up to their name. As well as there being a lot of green paint... The club was founded in 1889 and used to play at the Lawn Ground which was just a few hundred metres... Silly name for a road. Cheltenham Town are the next club on my list. If that was a Saturday game, I would have been quite t... This is the larger of the two roads to the New Lawn. The ground, and the collection of houses known ... Nailsworth. Nailsworth. A little further along here, my front tyre suddenly went flat. I found the hole and found something ... View from the towpath. A pretty church. A very green canal. I'm now in Gloucester, on a road which I have used many times before towards the end of a one-day ri... A lifting bridge. Gloucester's docks. Gloucester. According to the label, this sculpture is called the Spirit of Aviation. As Norwich had dragons, Gloucester has rugby balls with faces, to celebrate the upcoming Rugby World... A business close to Gloucester Airport. This section of road is the closest point on this year's rid... A brief glimpse of Cheltenham's city centre. Whaddon Road, the closest to my own home of any of the grounds on this trip. It's the home of Chelte... The bowls club next to the football ground. I know I must be getting near the end of my trip now. Including this ground, I have 18 still to visi... 99. Cheltenham Town... It looks like this lane must have been closed off for a while. I'm happy with it though as it gives ... Just a combine harvester in a field. I don't know what that is. There isn't a bus stop there. I seem to have a fondness for round buildings. Baunton, a typical village in the Cotswolds. There's a circus in Cirencester. Cirencester. Several Cotswold towns have a clear shallow stream flowing through them. In Cirencester, it's the Ri... Cirencester. Cirencester. Cirencester. The church seems to have a modern annexe. The church. Cirencester. I don't know whether the Halfords chain has had a major restructuring while I've been on this trip o... Another large military aircraft. It came over when I already had my camera out ready to take a pictu... The Cotswold Water Park is a large nature reserve in and around the lakes which have formed where gr... Each of these mosaics in the underpass was made by a different local junior school and is in the sty... Another round building. It looks like part of a giant chess set. The final 10 km or so of today will be on the old railway line. A bridge carrying a minor road over the old railway. Part of the water park. Quarrying. I expect this will eventually become another lake. The early stage of the River Thames, which will eventually grow to ... I remember taking a lot of pictures of fire stations on my Australia trip. Here's the one in Crickla... ... and here's the play area next to it. This view doesn't look at all English to me. I still feel like I'm on holiday in some far-off place,... Cricklade. Cricklade. This isn't my hotel. I'll be staying in a pub a bit further along the road. I've got a nice big room. According to the hotel information pack, dogs are welcome in the rooms but... Strange thing to have at a pub. I've never seen a pub before which has a sample of each beer on display in front of the pump. Some o... It seems that street signs are one of the categories of junk that this pub likes to have on display. The stairs up to my room are quite steep. I've now got four mains plugs because one came with the new camera. Normally I have just one contine... Another thing that makes this year unusual is that it's been much easier than normal to ensure my cl... There's the pub's microbrewery: the Hop Kettle Brewing Company. Cricklade. The little "no entry" signs on either side of the side road are lit up from ins... Just time to oil the bike before breakfast. A housing estate on the edge of Swindon. I can't quite remember the name of the estate, something to... A cycle route with a railway-style map. Swindon is possibly most famous for its Magic Roundabout, which we will see soon. It's cluster of fi... Swindon station. Somebody just tried to ask me for directions by passing an entire sheet of text wit... The Magic Roundabout, next to the football ground. Third division Swindon Town's home, the County Ground, next to the cricket ground of the same name.... The football club used to share the cricket ground until this ground opened in 1896. Its current cap... 100. Swindon Town... The County Ground. Part of the Magic Roundabout. The County Ground. A mural. The Uffington White Horse, carved into the chalk hillside some time in the first millennium BC. Now we're entering Oxford, a city which I know reasonably well. This is Seacourt Tower, which pretty... I once bought a folding bike there. It did't last very long though. Where's he going with that? I remember coming here in the middle of the night some time around the year 2000 to watch when this ... Oxford. Oxford. Part of the history department. Cornmarket Street, the main shopping street. Looking along Broad Street. A tour group. Broad Street, with Balliol and Trinity colleges on the far side. The Sheldonian Theatre, where university ceremonies take place. Oxford's Bridge of Sighs, part of Hertford College. The courtyard of the Bodleian Library. The statue looks like King Charles I, who used Oxford as his ... The Radcliffe Camera, part of the library. Bikes in Radcliffe Square. Carfax Tower. Pembroke College. Christchurch, the largest of Oxford's colleges. By the river. Some of the college boathouses. The Thames has grown since I saw it yesterday. Oxford's ring road. Strange name for a pub: "The Priory and ...?..." Fourth division Oxford United have a strange ground. It's a modern one, opened in 2001, and has plen... Capacity 12500. Record attendance 12243. The Kassam Stadium, named after Firoz Kassam who used to be the chairman of the club and still owns ... Unusual. It sounds like they won't fine you or anything like that. They'll just move your car out of... 101. Oxford United... The Kassam Stadium is certainly a lot easier to access than Cambridge's Abbey Stadium. I was surpris... The Kassam Stadium with a sculpture of a bull. A milestone opposite where I had happened to stop. Wallingford. Wallingford. Countryside. It's getting hilly again. This morning was lovely and flat. Some kind of crop. Quiet back roads. Didcot power station. I thought the cooling towers were being demolished a few years ago but somehow... A well. I don't have a sixpence. I seem to be going down some kind of rabbit hole now. This is marked as a cycle route but it goes down a flight of steps. A restaurant in Reading. Reading. The "O" is for the Oracle shopping centre. If you recognise this from the motorway, you know where I am. What's that hideous thing? It looks like an RAF roundel. The Madejski Stadium, home of second division team Reading.... Those aren't motorcycles. They're Reading hire bikes. Like local rivals Oxford, Reading also have a stadium named after their chairman. In this case, Sir ... There are names on the bricks in all of the squares. I guess you had to pay more to get one of the o... 102. Reading... The Madejski Stadium. We've had this view in ... Reading. Reading. Swans in the dark. Another hire bike stand. My hotel, which serves food until ten o'clock, including a 20 ounce steak. I think I'm getting worse at remembering directions. This is how far I got from the hotel this morni... Wargrave Manor. This field looks like it has recently been worked in two different directions. Here comes Christmas! The bridge to Marlow. The Thames at Marlow. A swan in flight. The Thames at Marlow. A stone on the bridge saying that the only other surviving bridge by the same architect is the Széch... Marlow. I'm a bit lost in the woods at the moment. Adams Park. 103. Wycombe Wanderers... Under one of the stands. Wycombe Wanderers are currently in the fourth division. Adams Park, also known as the Causeway Stadi... Adams Park. The flag of Wycombe Wanderers. Each of the plaques refers to an event in the history of High Wycombe. There was no mention of ... The shopping centre has the feel of a group of old streets which have had a roof put on them. I think the silver thing is a bench but it's a funny shape and it's in a funny place. Fields. This was a bad choice of road. Chalfont St. Peter. There are a few old photographs in this area. They were put up to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubi... A large puddle. Looking along the M25, I can see some heavy rain approaching.