London to King’s Lynn
Ride Overview
There’s enough distraction along this gentle cycling route to turn it from an easy weekender to a cultural week. Many of England’s great cultural sites are passed; Audley End, Cambridge, Anglesey Abbey, Ely, Wicken Fen, King’s Lynn.
It’s a pleasant cycle ride from the edge of Essex to the shores of the Wash, passing through a largely agricultural landscape of gently rolling fields, scattered woods and fens, mixed in with some pretty villages. But as with so much of the National Network, the actual route is a minor player - we cannot pretend that the flat lands of Cambridgeshire compete on equal terms with say, the Alps, or the Serengeti. There are few if any, stopping to-ogle-at-the-view moments. But. On the route is Audley End, one of the culturally most important places in Britain, RAF Duxford, the epi-centre of UK airborne things, Cambridge the global centre for science and technological cluster by intensity, Wicken Fen an internationally important wetland centre, and King’s Lynn, the UK’s finest remaining Hanseatic port. In short there’s much to persuade you to step off your bike for an hour or two mid-ride, so whilst the journey could be done in a day, - it is flat and the mixed surfaces pretty good throughout - Route 11 is best considered as a weekender with a recommended stop in Ely.
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Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Stansted Mountfitchet/King’s Lynn DISTANCE: 142km TOTAL ASCENT: 681m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: mixed surfaces; asphalted bike paths, un-metalled paths, bridlepaths, quiet traffic-light lanes. RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS; CAMPING: Manuden; The Yew Tree, Reach; The Dyke’s End, Cambridge; The Cambridge Blue, Fort St. George, Ely; Marmalade and Jam café, Cathedral Undercroft, ACCOMMODATION: Ely: Hatter’s Meadows Glamping, King’s Lynn: The Bank House Hotel NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Stansted Mountfitchet, Cambridge, Downham Market, Ely, King’s Lynn LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: NCN 1, NCN 13, London to King’s Lynn
*WMWG only list places for food, drink and beds which have met our strict quality standards. Typically, pubs, restaurants and cafés will promote local growers, are independent who set high standards, but who are not necessarily the cheapest place in town.
Ride Notes
Stansted Mountfitchet’s claim to tourist fame is its reimagined Norman castle (built on the original motte). Formerly an instrument of repression and violence, built by Saxon slave labour, the castle’s barbican is where this ride begins. Be here before opening time and you will be mingling with ‘Norman’ soldiers coming to work in their chain mail, helmets tucked under their arms. Hordes of excited young Saxons will be disembarking from coaches and young boys will be eyeing up the wooden swords in the souvenir shop.
Manuden
From the castle, the country rolls gently under the wheels, the fields are big, the skies bigger and it’s all very pleasand as you head towards Manuden, a village lined with Grade II listed medieval houses, former shops, inns. There are no streetlights and plenty of ancient yews. A good pub, The Yew Tree, and a village green.
Continuing northwards on narrow and barely frequented lanes, you pedal easily through a hedgeless landscape, fields crop-full. You are not forced to stop and marvel at grandiose views, but in its gentle way, this corner of agricultural Britain has its charms.
Audley End
One of the most culturally important estates in England, Audley End, is a mile or so off route. Set in a beautiful valley, the house is better described as a grand palace. (Which is why Charles II bought it from James Howard, the 3rd Earl of Suffolk, in 1666 for £50,000.) The gardens are some of the finest and most famous in England. Further up, and again a mile or so off the main route, is IMW Duxford. From the early days of flight to the Cold War, RAF Duxford (as it was known) has played a key role in most of the significant events of the 20th century. Inside every hanger iconic aircraft, their role in the skies done. There are collections of curios and stories from all the ages of flight.
The DNA path Cambridge
Quiet lanes and a short rideable off-road section leads via Sawston to Great Shelford to the ‘DNA path’. For 2.5km, you are effectively travelling along a portion of your own genome. The path is decorated with 10,257 tiles of four colours representing the complete genetic content of a human. The path is a mere fraction of your genome, for at this scale it would take a path going 15 times round the earth to be fully representative of the sequences of the genetic codes. The path ends outside Addenbrooke Hospital, a world-class centre for genetic research and where the BRCA2 gene was discovered in 1994, which is an early indicator of breast cancer. The path also includes a plaque commemorating the 10,000th mile of the National Cycle Network.
Encircling Cambridge are nests of modernistic buildings. The futuristic architecture proclaims the city’s global pre-eminence in science and technology. In many ways, the innovative labs give a better sense of what Cambridge is about, more so than its sublime medieval architecture, such as King’s College Chapel. Certainly, the outlying districts are a lot less crowded. Cycling infrastructure is amongst the best in the UK, so riding through the city is a breeze. In UK terms at least.
Pedal onwards towards the St. George flags fluttering from the many flag poles which punctuate the flat lands of The Fens. The Fens have always been ‘England’s Heart’ and have defended often violently, what Fenlanders see as ‘true England’. William the Conqueror’s invasion almost stumbled in these marsh lands, the Tudors had at various times, revolts to quell, the Stuarts and their desire to drain the Fens, met untold resistance. Brexit as an idea was all but born in this watery world. History apart, The Fens are a land of wonder. The sky is the landscape. From Cambridge to Wicken, the route uses quiet roads and tracks and is signed as the Lodes Way. Lodes are drainage channels dating from when monks farmed the land. You drift into a dreamscape of cloud and sky, water and rustling reeds. You learn to make friends with the wind.
In a very crowded field of ‘Great British Gardens’, those of Anglesey Abbey (NT) are considered to be one of the greatest. The house and its gardens is a mile off route and is as good excuse for a rest from pedalling as you may wish for.
Wicken Fen
So far, the journey across The Fens has been flat riding beside industrial agriculture on a grand scale. Within the sea of agro-chemically enhanced farmland, lies Wicken Fen island of nature. Of international importance, it is one of the very last areas of wild fen. Here, is the realm of the bitten, crested grebes and marsh harriers. On a warm summer’s day with the reeds susurrating in the breeze, the clack of waterfowl, the rich oxygenated air, and after many kilometres of riding, it is hard not to find a comfortable bench on which to lie for some cloud watching and surreptitious snoozing.
Ely Cathedral
You’ll see Ely long before you arrive. More than 1,000 years after the cathedral’s construction, 'the ‘Ship of the Fens’ towers over the low-lying fenland sea of greens and blues. It is the finest example of Romanseque architecture in the country and regardless of your religious persuasion, it is a marvel of architectural splendour. The town, long known as ‘the island of eels’, is definitely worth riding around.
Ten Mile Bank
The ten mile bank, is exactly that: ten miles of narrow road running beside a bank. The road has been de-listed from Route 11 by Sustrans, the Charity responsible for the National Cycling Network, due to an increase in traffic. It is not too bad as the road is narrow and vehicles have to slow right down in order to pass. On top of the bank is a waterway which, several hundred years ago would have been below the path. However, with all the drainage, the rich peatlands of the surrounding Fens have shrunk, meaning that this path is now at least ten foot lower than the waterway. On a bleak, cold-wind day, this is a demanding stretch where the horizon never seems to come closer. On a day when the clouds dance above you, it is one of the most captivating sections of the ride.
Downham Market
England is in the main, a gently hilly country. You expect a hill to rise up before you at any moment as you ride across its landscape. But here in the Fens, the only rising will be that of the church tower at Downham Market and a further 20km of flat riding beside the river Ouse, you’ll see the roofs and towers of the Hanseatic Port of King’s Lynn.
The Hanseatic League was a medieval group of towns surrounding the North Sea and Baltic, who controlled the trade across those seas. It has been likened to an early version of the European Union, with its trade laws and regulations. The ports were known as ‘The Hanse’, and became incredibly rich. King’s Lynn, was one of them. Somehow, fortuitously some would say, it has avoided ‘development’ and should really be a film set, so untouched is the centre by modernity (other than pesky vehicles). Merchant houses, various religious buildings, a fine quay from where George Vancouver set off for the Western coast of Canada, all make for a very photogenic end to this jaunt across Cambridgeshire.
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All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.
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