Steve and Rig are both taking part in The Motorbike Forum Challenge 100 which is organised by the splendid fellows over at www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk.

The challenge consists of visiting 100 locations that are divided into 10 Groups based on region and for each location you visit, photograph and then post on the forum you get 10 points as well as an additional bonus of 50 points for every Group you complete.

TMBF Challenge 100 Progress Map

Bollitree Castle

Bollitree Castle is located in Weston-under-Penyard a quiet location close to the busy A40 near Ross-on-Wye. What you can see from the road belies the extent of the construction and is a private residence so the chances of a wander round are few and far between.

Faringdon Folly

Just outside of Faringdon is Folly Hill on which the Folly, designed by one Gerald Wellesley, stands. It was constructed in 1935 for Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson and stands some 140 feet high apparently commanding spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. Tricky to see and photograph from the road but is open to the public on certain days. See www.faringdonfolly.org.uk for details.

Santa Pod Raceway

Santa Pod Raceway, opened at Easter in 1966, is Europe’s first permanent drag racing venue. It is built on a disused World War II American air base, RAF Podington, once used by the 92nd Bomber Group. Close by is the USAF War Memorial

Skins Cafe

The high street in Brackley plays host to the Skins Cafe which is a coffee & clothing store, very reasonable prices for a beverage and bun with the added bonus of being able to part with your cash to walk out with some clothing at the same time. If your fancy takes you there is also a motorcycle dealership next door. Visit the Skins Website for further details.

Crosskeys Bridge

Crosskeys Bridge is a swing bridge that spans the tidal River Nene in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire. When it was built in 1897, it was the third bridge to cross the Nene in Sutton Bridge. (Wikipedia)

The Mo, Sheringham Museum

The Mo Sheringham Museum is a museum in the town of Sheringham, Norfolk, England. The current museum opened in April 2010 and replaced the former collection which was housed in converted fishermen’s cottages behind the main street. (Wikipedia)

Norfolk Motorcycle Museum

An interesting collection of over 80 motorcycles from the 1920’s to the 1960’s.

Website: Norfolk Motorcycle Museum

RAF Air Defence Radar Museum

Website: www.radarmuseum.co.uk

Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum

The Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum is a museum collection of aircraft and aviation-related artefacts, located near the former RAF Bungay airfield on the outskirts of Flixton, in the United Kingdom. (Wikipedia)

Stanton Windmill

Upthorpe Mill is a Grade II listed post mill and Scheduled Ancient Monument at Stanton, Suffolk, England which has been restored to working order. (Wikipedia)

The Missing Sock

Website: www.themissingsock.co.uk

Swarkestone Causeway

Swarkestone Causeway is an ancient bridge crossing the River Trent between the villages of Swarkestone and Stanton by Bridge, about 6 miles south of Derby. It is currently Grade I Listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. (Wikipedia)

Belvoir Castle

Belvoir Castle (pronounced Beaver) is a stately home in the English county of Leicestershire, overlooking the Vale of Belvoir.

The castle is near several villages, including Redmile, Woolsthorpe, Knipton, Harston, Harlaxton, Croxton Kerrial and Bottesford, and the town of Grantham. Antiquarian John Leland wrote in the 16th century that the “castle stands on the very nape of a high hill, steep up each way, partly by nature, partly by the working of men’s hands”

A corner of the castle is still used as the family home of the Manners family and remains the seat of the Dukes of Rutland, most of whom are buried in the grounds of the mausoleum there. (Wikipedia)

Website: www.belvoircastle.com

Dunstable Downs

Dunstable Downs are part of the Chiltern Hills, in southern Bedfordshire in England. They are a chalk escarpment forming the north-eastern reaches of the Chilterns. At 243 m, Dunstable Downs are the highest point of the county of Bedfordshire. (Wikipedia)

Bridego Bridge (127)

Bridego Railway Bridge (now known as Mentmore Bridge) is the location where the Great Train Robbers unloaded £2.6 million from the Glasgow to London mail train in the early hours of Thursday 8 August 1963. (Wikipedia)

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was the central site of the United Kingdom’s Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which during the Second World War regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers.

The official historian of World War II British Intelligence has written that the “Ultra” intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and that without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain. (Wikipedia)

Website: www.bletchleypark.org.uk

Bancroft Concrete Cows

The Bancroft Concrete Cows in Milton Keynes are an iconic work of sculpture, created in 1978 by Canadian-born artist, Liz Leyh.

There are three cows and three calves, approximately half life size. (Wikipedia)

Blaenavon Ironworks

Blaenavon Ironworks is an industrial museum in Blaenavon in Wales. The ironworks was of crucial importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. (Wikipedia)

Castle Coch

Castle Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales. (Wikipedia)

Winding House Museum

The Winding House in New Tredegar is the museum for the Caerphilly County Borough. (Website)

Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. (Website)
(Wikipedia)

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. (Wikipedia)(Website)

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, and one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body of the cathedral was completed in only 38 years, from 1220 to 1258. (Wikipedia)(Website)

Calshot Castle

Calshot Castle is one of Henry VIII’s device forts, built on Calshot Spit at the Solent near Fawley to guard the entrance to Southampton Water (grid reference SU488025). Also known as a Henrician Castle, Calshot was built as part of Henry’s chain of coastal defences to defend England’s coast from foreign invasion especially during the turbulent times after his break from the Roman Catholic Church. (Wikipedia)

Warsash Clock Tower

Warash House Estate built a tower faced by a clock in the centre of the village to hold up to 6,000 gallons of water. In present days the water tower has been removed and the clock tower is a private residence. (Wikipedia)

Batemans Brewery

Batemans Brewery (George Bateman & Son Ltd) is an English brewery based at Salem Bridge Brewery in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and founded in 1874. Website: www.bateman.co.uk

Jolly Fisherman Statue

The Jolly Fisherman Poster and its accompanying slogan is probably the most famous holiday advertisement ever drawn. It has been circulated hundreds of times in almost every newspaper in the land, and the dancing salt has been imitated by thousands of visitors. John Hassall drew the picture in 1908. Website: www.jollyfisherman.co.uk

Gayton Engine Pumping Station

The Gayton Engine Pumping Station was built and completed by H.M. Commissioners of Sewers in 1850, to pump water from Gayton fen and marsh into the Great River Eau. The power for pumping was originally steam, but in 1945 a diesel engine was introduced, and this is what survives in working order.

Hawaiian Eye Cafe

Website: Facebook Page

Thornton Abbey and Gatehouse

Thornton Abbey was a medieval abbey located close to the small North Lincolnshire village of Thornton Curtis. It was founded as a priory in 1139 by William le Gros, the Earl of Yorkshire, and raised to the status of Abbey in 1148 Website: www.english-heritage.org.uk

RAF Goxhill – USAF Memorial

RAF Goxhill is a former Royal Air Force station in England. It is located just to the east of the village of Goxhill, on the south bank of the Humber estuary, opposite the city of Kingston upon Hull, in north Lincolnshire. Wikipedia

Spurn Lightship

The Spurn Lightship is a lightvessel currently anchored in Hull Marina in the British city of Kingston upon Hull, England. Website: www.hullcc.gov.uk

Mount Pleasant Windmill

Mount Pleasant Windmill is a traditional four-sailed brick tower mill built in 1875 on the Lincoln Cliff overlooking Kirton-in-Lindsey with extensive views over the Trent Valley and the Wolds. It was wind powered until 1936 when the sails were removed. Website: www.trueloafbakery.co.uk

Leighton Hall Gateway

Leighton Hall is an estate located to the east of Welshpool in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys, in Wales. Leighton Hall is a listed grade I property. It is located on the opposite side of the valley of the river Severn to Powis Castle. Wikipedia

The Crooked House

The Crooked House is a public house in South Staffordshire, England. Its name and distinctive appearance are the result of 19th century mining subsidence. One side of the building is now approximately four feet lower than the other.
Wikipedia Website: www.thecrooked-house.co.uk

Pub Names