By Jack Thurston

IN HIS follow-up to the best-selling Lost Lanes book, Jack Thurston celebrates the very best of cycling in Wales and on the English borders in 36 new routes, from gentle, family-friendly excursions to challenging mountain adventures.

Here, in an exclusive extract for the Worcester News, he describes a circular 46-mile ride on quiet country lanes from the quintessential English market town of Leominster, through the black and white villages of Herefordshire, to the wild and windswept Welsh uplands.

When it comes to woodland, Britain is now the bald man of Europe. Once upon a time, vast primeval forests covered almost the whole of the British Isles.

Today trees account for just 12 per cent of the land area, compared to about one-third in France and Germany and a whopping 73 per cent in Finland.

Yet Britain is blessed with the lion’s share of northern Europe’s ancient, veteran and champion trees or as 19th century English clergyman Francis Kilvert described them, “those grey, gnarled, low browed, knock kneed, bent, huge, strange, long armed, deformed, hunchbacked, misshapen oak men that stand awaiting and watching century after century”.

As Kilvert would have known, nowhere is Britain’s wealth of ancient trees more evident than in the Welsh Borders. And not just standing tall in the fields and hedgerows, but used in the construction of the half-timbered buildings that are the most distinctive aspect of the local architecture.

The black and white villages of the Herefordshire/Shropshire border have long been marketed as a tourist attraction, a vision of ‘Merrie England’.

Jack said: “I’ve always found this a bit strange since the black and white villages were only painted black and white in the mid-19th century.

“Before that, the timbers would have been left their natural colour or very lightly lime-washed. The walls between would have been the colour of the local clay, ranging from soft pinks to mild ambers.

“There is still plenty of black and white to be found, but many owners of these historic buildings are now reverting to the old ways by revealing the natural hues and grain of the timber and showcasing, all the better, the fine work of the craftsmen who built them.”

This ride begins in Leominster, a market town whose many fine half-timbered buildings owe their existence to the medieval wool trade that saw the town prosper, literally off the backs of local Ryeland sheep.

Their soft, short wool, known as ‘Lemster ore’, was highly prized and Queen Elizabeth I insisted on it for her woollen stockings. With the coming of the industrial revolution, Leominster switched from wool to cotton, and more recently it has evolved into the antiques shop capital of the Borders.

This ride is a loop west to Kington, not far from the border with Wales. To begin, the route follows the course of the River Lugg through Eyton and Kingsland on quiet lanes and the B road to Eardisland, a picture-perfect village astride the River Arrow complete with a moated castle ruin, a couple of pubs, a tea room and a 17th century dovecote that now plays host to a community shop.

It’s then a back lanes route over the A44 to Pembridge, perhaps the quintessential black and white village, says Jack. Its current population of around 1,000 is half its peak in the Middle Ages, when the town was one of the trading posts where English wool merchants and Welsh sheep farmers would meet to do business in safety.

The stocky church, with its separate bell tower, hints at the importance of Pembridge in its heyday.

From Pembridge wiggly lanes roughly shadow the River Arrow west, picking up the B4355 for the run-in to Kington.

Despite being on the western (Welsh) side of Offa’s Dyke, Kington has been firmly English since before the Norman conquest. The place has a medieval feel and was a staging point for drovers heading east over Hergest Ridge.

Heading west out of Kington, the route traces the ridge’s lower contours. It’s a wild, windswept hill said to be haunted by a ghost dog.

In the early 1970s the spectral hound was joined by rock multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, who moved here in search of peace and isolation after he found stardom with Tubular Bells. His follow-up album was a paean to Hergest Ridge, where he used to fly his model gliders.

Crossing the River Arrow, it’s a bit of a slog up to the top of Brilley Mountain from where a confusing web of narrow farm lanes leads to Eardisley. This was once a stop on the Hay Railway, a very early horse-drawn goods line that connected Brecon with Kington, and some of the railway buildings remain.

Heading back to Leominster, the route wends its way along lanes through three final black and white villages - Almeley, Weobley (pronounced Web-ley) and Dilwyn.

Best Pubs and Pit Stops Along the Way

Rita ’s Tearoom, Eardisland HR6 9BD (01544 388064).Good breakfasts, light lunches and teas.

New Inn, Market Square, Pembridge HR6 9DZ (01544 388427). Ancient, half-timbered inn in the heart of the village.

Ye Olde Steppes, High Street, Pembridge HR6 9DS (01544 388506). Award-winning shop & tea rooms.