Detour #265: The Wolds and Bends of Lincolnshire, UK
Across the flat fenlands of Lincolnshire you’ll find some of the straightest roads in the UK, but if you know where to look there are brilliant bends to be discovered.
If you’re on the hunt for a B-road blast then it pays to ask a biker. Detourists of the two-wheeled variety can always be trusted to have the best Bs banked in their memories. There’s one caveat, however. Motorcycles take up a lot less real estate on the road than cars and sometimes biker routes can be just a bit too narrow for modern motors.
A Caterham Seven is about as close to a superbike as you’ll find on four wheels – both in size and performance – so when I borrowed one for a few days it was to the biker forums and YouTube channels that I headed to help plan a route. The book Bikers Britain by Simon Weir was widely quoted as being a superb source of riding routes, and drew my attention to the Bardney and Bucknell Bends in Lincolnshire.
Having owned a Seven for a couple of years I knew that you have to think more like a biker than a driver when doing your prep and packing. There’s not a lot of room, but with creative use of bungee straps my son and I managed to carry camping gear and clothes for a week in ours. This time I only have a small bag and camera gear which fit neatly in the passenger footwell. Another lesson learned from past ownership is that in order to cover long distances in anything approaching comfort, ear protection is key. That’s even more true in this 620S version with its 310bhp supercharged engine creating a cacophony. Noise-cancelling headphones mean I cover the run up the A1 from London able to hear navigation instructions and even some background music, although the riot of exhaust and engine noise remains ever-present.
From Boston I follow the A52 to the coast at Skegness, but it’s a heavily-trafficked route with plenty of speed cameras, and a means to an end rather than an enjoyable experience. Cutting inland again on the A16 is a little better, but the fun only really begins after Louth.
The A153 Horncastle Road is a cracking start, with those long Lincolnshire straights punctuated by fast, sweeping bends across the Wolds. The Caterham is a bit of a conundrum here. It is so obscenely fast that within about three seconds of setting off I’ve hit the national speed limit. Using the car’s full potential is impossible on any public road and, as I pass by the Cadwell Park race circuit I realise that my planning really ought to have included some track time.
East of Horncastle on the B190 is where the corners start to string together. With shorter straights between them, the temptation to extend the Seven to silly speeds disappears and instead it’s the rhythmic repetition of brake, turn, accelerate that demands focus. There’s an undiluted joy in this lightweight car, with its short-shifting manual transmission, unassisted steering and no driver aids whatsoever. There’s risk too, for the power is so prodigious that it will light up the rear tyres all the way to third gear if you’re mad enough to apply full throttle.
I whip through the sequence of bends approaching Bucknall then head north for more at Bardney. The intensity of direction changes is sustained almost all the way into Market Rasen. It’s only when I get home to write this that I’ve actually missed an opportunity to make a pit stop at the Willingham Woods Bike Cafe where, no doubt, I could have been pointed to even more brilliant B-roads.
ROADBOOK
CLASS: B-road Blast
NAME: Wolds & Bends
ROUTE: LOuth to MArket Rasen
COUNTRY: UK
Distance: 39 Miles
If you’re heading up the M6 this Halloween you might want to call Ghostbusters.