Some photos of a ride out to Wicken Fen and a note about the photography of Herbert Wendell Gleason (1855-1937)

With the Raleigh Superbe in Swaffham Prior

Last week I took another spin out to Wicken Fen on one of my favourite routes. I take the road from Cambridge out to Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Swaffham Prior, Reach, then near Burwell along Weirs Drove and then up Dyson's Drove and Little Fen Drove to the Lodes Way. Once on the Lode's Way I go north to Wicken Fen. On the return journey I follow the Lode's Way all the way back to Lode and home via Bottisham. A splendid thirty miler. This time I took my late 1970s Raleigh Superbe - a bicycle that encourages a slow, looking about mode of travelling.

The Superbe in an old Raleigh Catalogue

As usual I took a few photographs and you offer a few here. The last time I posted some black and white images I realised that the way they look owes a great deal to the work of Herbert Wendell Gleason. I know his work because, when we were courting, Susanna bought me an illustrated copy of Henry David Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers which used Gleason's photographs. I was captivated by his work and have never managed to take a black and white photo without thinking of the photographs in this book. If this post does nothing else I hope it encourages you to take a look at Gleason's work.

Gleason's Concord

And now the photos from the ride out to Wicken Fen . . .

Between Reach and Burwell near the electricity sub-station 

Bottisham looking SE towards Lode

Burwell Church from railway bridge in Swaffham Prior

Crossroads on Swaffham Prior Fen - looking NNE

Crossroads on Swaffham Prior Fen - looking NNW

Crossroads on Swaffham Prior Fen - looking SE

Crossroads on Swaffham Prior Fen - looking SSE

Electricity lines next to Reach Lode

Fen Lighter, Wicken Fen

Flooded field, Priory Farm, Wicken

Konik Ponies on Priory Fen, Wicken

Konik Pony on Priory Fen, Wicken

Konik Ponies on Priory Fen, Wicken

Looking NE over Bottisham Fen

Looking SW across Bottisham Lode towards Stow-cum-Quy

New River, Wicken

New River, Wicken

Reach Lode

Swaffham Prior church towers

Windpump, Wicken Fen

Wicken Lode

New River, Wicken

New River, Wicken