I’ve been looking for an excuse to get Oscar out for a decent ride. However, some destinations are uncooperative, either only opening when it’s difficult for me, or being a little too far for a day out. The Avro Heritage Museum in Woodford near Stockport was somewhere I was determined to get to at some point, though open on Fridays (when I volunteer at the local library) Saturdays and Sundays. I tend not to ride at the weekend. But I was surprised that the AHM was less than forty miles away and I organised myself for said ride. It’s on the other side of the Pennines, though, and the most direct route is over quite interesting roads.

So having done a little shopping, and a cup of coffee in Waitrose Cafe, I got home, changed into my ‘armour’ and set off at about nine-fifteen, guided by Google Maps. Except I took a slightly alternative route over the moors, through Hathersage, Hope and Castleton, then up Winnats Pass. Winnats Pass might well be described as ‘dramatic’, with high rocky, steep slopes towering up each side of the road. The road is quite narrow, two lanes, so pausing to enjoy the scenery is not a great idea. Particularly on a summer weekend with the world and his wife and kids out for the day in Derbyshire. Castleton is home to three ‘Blue John’ mines, cave systems in the limestone. Blue John being a very rare, attractive, semi-precious mineral. It is well worth the cost of admission to take a guided tour – or even three. Once through the worst of the sightseeing traffic, I had a very enjoyable ride.

At the top of Winnats, the countryside opens out, spectacular in a different way. Riding Oscar, though, I was not sightseeing. I just enjoyed the glances I could afford. It’s been a few years since I was over that way. It was fun negotiating the steep and winding road down into Chapel en le Frith, to join the A6 Buxton Road.

Then through Furness Vale (one of the signs having been altered by some ingenious vandal to read ‘Furless Male’) Newtown and Disley. To turn off onto the A555 Manchester Airport Eastern Link Road, a fast dual carriageway. That’s not great fun on Oscar. I did get up to 60mph on the clock, and the vibration is tiring. (It gets worse at 70.)

It was a relief to turn off onto the A5149 Chester Road, then to follow the detailed guidance of the Google Lady through modern developments to the museum. There is little indication of the old airfield visible. The museum itself is a modern building, a Vulcan B2 Bomber standing sentinel outside. The approach – passing a construction site – is rewarded by the sight of Vulcan XM 603, nose on behind the fence. The aircraft is in the anti-flash white of the early cold-war period.

Entry is on the other side of the building, on the far side of the car park, a ‘Tallboy’ bomb on a trolley, the ‘smaller’ of Barnes Wallis’ ‘earthquake’ bombs – a mere 6 tons.

Inside, a warm welcome from the volunteers at the desk, and a surprisingly moderate admission charge. My first priority, as usual, the cafe upstairs for a pretty good mug of life. From the cafe windows, one looks out over a lawn, with the back of XM603 visible over to one corner.

Further round, though, beyond the fence, a wide construction site.

I drank my coffee, nibbling a couple of biscuits, then made my way back. From the Mezzanine one gets a view of the displays below.