Windsor Great Park Deer Park

[Russell]

We rode to the Great Park yesterday to collect the BCQ clue and were dissapointed to find the Deer Park* had been closed to cycles (ridden or pushed) since March.  This is due we were told due to cyclists decamping from Richmond Park, when that closed due to lockdown, to ride their circuits around Windsor instead.  There was conflict between groups.

*Not the Great Park just the Deer Park

[PeteBart]

We rode to the Great Park yesterday to collect the BCQ clue and were dissapointed to find the Deer Park* had been closed to cycles (ridden or pushed) since March.  This is due we were told due to cyclists decamping from Richmond Park, when that closed due to lockdown, to ride their circuits around Windsor instead.  There was conflict between groups.

*Not the Great Park just the Deer Park

Yes, to reduce opportunity for cycling during lockdown, when everyone else was increasing it,  was an absolute disgrace on the part of the Crown Estate. They seem set to leave it like that permanently, despite the park having returned to normal levels of busyness months ago.

In practical terms it really cuts down the options for a circular ride within the park, which is really annoying. On weekends they even employ people to police the Long Walk to prevent kids with tiny bikes riding on it. (Long Walk has always been closed to cyclists but that's really overdoing it).

[alexb]

There's been long-standing antagonism towards cyclists in the Great Park. It was a performs back into the early 90's when I lived there. Despite having a cycling permit I was routinely healed for cycling in the park. Rumor then was the the Duke of Edinburgh hated cyclists and wanted them banned from the park completely.

[matthew]

I grew up just outside the great park and learnt to use gears on the road across Smiths Lawn. We used to enter by Blackness Gate and exit by Cheapside Gate for a 7 mile loop.

As a family group we never experienced any difficulties, though the area of the village, the deer park and the long walk was not where we went. It may be that entering from bishops gate placed riders into a more contentious area with more walkers etc.

It should also be noted that the park has a 20 mph speed limit, which as children we were never threatening, but I suspect I would now have to actively observe.

None of this is a good justification to limit cycling in the park, and I wonder what the impact on NCN route 4 through the park is.