Sunday
2nd February 2014 Highams Park to High Laver and Moreton, Essex. 135
miles – AF JJ IS.
Here
are Ainsleys notes from yesterdays ride:
“Great effort today. Although nice
and sunny there was a noticeable headwind on the homeward stretch.
We managed 35 miles and the average speed
was up on last week.”
This was a great ride, Ainsley tagged on an
additional 5 miles from North Weald Basset to
the old Tube Station at Blake
Hall. These five miles plus a conspicuous headwind on the return leg made for a
personally exhausting ride.
We left HP at 9:00am climbing up to the
Epping New road and continuing to Epping via High Beech. Taking the right fork
out of Epping we dropped off the Epping Forest Ridge down to North weald. After
crossing the A414 we cycled through what is primarily agricultural land to
Moreton. A short diversion to the parish church of All Saints, High Laver,
Essex where we stopped for a quick refresh.
Outside this church is the brick altar tomb of John Locke (1704).
A mural tablet, originally above the tomb, was moved inside the church for
preservation in 1932, the tercentenary of Locke's birth.
John Locke wrote The Two Treatises of
Government. Two essays that influenced and echoed in phrases in the Declaration
of Independence and writings by Samuel Adams that attempted to gain support for
rebellion. Of Locke's influence Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Bacon, Locke and
Newton I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without
any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which
have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences"
Locke supported the right of the people to
overthrow rulers who betray them. The executive and the legislature coexist
independently to keep each other in check. Further, Locke asserted that if a
leader violates the community’s trust, the people can and should replace him
immediately. Similarly, if the legislative body does not fulfill the needs of
the people, it should be dissolved and replaced with whatever form of
government the people think best.
Any way moving on, Moreton is a pretty Essex Village that has two pubs, the Nags Head
and the White Hart, they both looked like decent boozers for a summer drive and
Lunch. (Although why Moreton, with a population of 366, has 2 pubs while
Highams Park with a population of 11,355 just has the Signal Box and the County
heaven only knows.
As we cross back south over the A414 we
drop down via Toot Hill into the Roding Valley and cross it at Abridge. The Roding
as we expected has flooded on to the main flood plain although the flood
warning here is no longer in place.
River levels have dropped in the Abridge
area, however standing water may remain in places. Due to the large amount of
rain that has fallen recently the catchment is saturated, therefore the river
will be very sensitive to any further rainfall. The remainder of Sunday is
forecast to be largely dry and we expect levels to continue to fall. We will
continue to monitor the situation. A flood alert remains in force for the
middle river Roding catchment.
Keep
an eye on the Blog for any details of next weeks ride.
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