'Steady Saturday' Covenham 27th June 2026

STEADY SATURDAY COVENHAM 27th June 2026

With Ty Harness on duties elsewhere, Tim Newbery would lead today’s “Steady Saturday” ride to Covenham, where we’d hope to take refreshment at Covenham Sailing Club as they’d be open for their fortnightly ‘Sailabilty’ activities.

Meeting up at Louth’s Meridian Leisure Centre at 9 am were Tim, Sue and Harvey. Ty had also turned up to bid us a fine day’s ride. Sue needed to return by 11.30 so timings were duly noted and that suited us all, as by then temperatures would be 26 Degrees Celsius and rising. 

Heading out of town through Brackenborough we met a number of other riders out on this fine warm and sunny day. Chatting between ourselves about the early harvest and noting bales of hay already in the fields, we listened to a great variety of birdsong. Uplifting. 

Now through the villages of Covenham St Bartholomew and Covenham St Mary which are of Saxon origin. Recorded in Domesday as Coveneham, it ranked among the top 20% of English settlements in wealth, largely due to a highly profitable local salt production industry. The wealth may have gone but today would be busy for the villagers as Angela at ‘The ‘Ash’ was hosting an open day as part of the National Garden Scheme. Refreshments were being served between 10 am and 3 pm at the Village Hall (the Community Café normally only open on Thursday between 11 am and 2 pm but opening times specially extended for the Open Gardens weekend).

https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/47160/the-ash

As we’d planned on a visit to the Sailing club we continued on, only to find the gates closed and locked! Luckily within a few minutes a Sailing Club Member arrived and said that the centre and more importantly the café was indeed open and unlocked and opened the gates for us. They had been closed and locked as some members of the public had been misbehaving on the previous Wednesday. Tea and a slice of cake for £1 seemed remarkable value and we sat awhile in the shade watching the budding sailors prepare for instruction. 

Departing at 10.30 am we’d backtrack to Covenham with the aim of returning to the Leisure Centre by 11.30 am. A freshening breeze made the rising temperatures manageable and it wasn’t long before arriving in Alvingham with time for another drinks break at the splendid enamelled AA route sign. 151 and a half miles to London, very precise.  

Arrived back at the Leisure Centre at 11.21 am having covered 18 miles, the temperature 26 Degrees Celsius. 

Many thanks to all for the company.

Tim’s ‘Relive’ video: https://www.relive.com/view/vxOQ1w1yzMO