Saddleworth Voices: Maurice Reid (part 2)

Over the past four years, Saddleworth Voices have recorded almost 70 interviews to preserve fond memories and anecdotes of all things local.

With the support of Saddleworth Parish Council, Delph Community Association, Delph library, Saddleworth Museum, and the North West Sound Archive in Clitheroe, the team of volunteers has created an oral record of our times, with the added advantage of capturing accent and dialect.

Here, Martin Plant looks at the life of Maurice Reid: part 2.

Maurice Reid was born in Liverpool in 1943. Before retirement, he was Head of English at Hulme Grammar School for Boys and has lived with Janet, his wife, in Delph for over 35 years.

As a result of niggling football and skiing injuries, Maurice took up cycling. He started cycling to work and was an early user of a cycling helmet. People used to point and make rude remarks!!

In 1990 he and Janet spent a week cycling the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. The following year they took a month to cycle a stretch of the Pilgrims’ Way from Santander to Roscoff.

In the summer of 1992, they toured the Picos de Europa in Spain. Janet received a

round of applause from a bus party as they cycled to the top of a 6000 foot pass! There followed cycling tours of the Hebrides (in the rain), the churches of East Anglia, Northern Ireland, and Riding the Retreat from Mons to Paris, visiting the First World War battlefields.

In 1999, their son Angus was working in Turkey, and former Hulme headboy Robert Hicks was also there on an exchange scheme when an earthquake struck, causing extensive damage and killing thousands.

Maurice decided to do a sponsored cycle ride from London to Izmit, a distance of 1500 miles, with support from Hulme and Saddleworth Rotary Club. The journey took six weeks, via the Alps (and dangerous, long, narrow unlit tunnels with big lorries’ horns blaring), Italy and a ferry to Greece where Maurice was hospitalised briefly with dehydration.

He recalled people were often the most friendly in the poorer areas of Italy and Greece. “If you travel alone, people look after you. They talk to you more freely,” he said.

On one occasion when he was offered accommodation in a private house, during the night his door was pushed open and figure crept in – but instead of a killer’s knife, a hot water bottle was pushed into his bed!

The border crossing between Greece and Turkey is always a tense affair – but Maurice just cycled to the front and was waved through!

Istanbul was a “horror” with crowded roads and aggressive drivers, but 60 miles later he reached Izmit where he and his son were welcomed and feasted as guests of honour.

Maurice raised £10,000 pounds, which was matched by Rotary International, to make £20,000 to buy hospital intensive care equipment.

Since then, Maurice has cycled three times across America, the last time in 2013 when he was 70 years old.

In 2006, he cycled from Land’s End to John O’ Groats and in 2007 he walked the Pennine Way.

Three years’ ago, he and Janet cycled along the River Danube from source to Budapest. Maurice then completed the journey to the river delta in Romania.

Maurice says he loves the simplicity of touring. “You pack up a tent and head for somewhere new. You learn about yourself and about other people. It gives you time to think and it is a sort of cleaning process.”

Maurice also says that living in Saddleworth isideal for cycle training. “If you can cycle in the South Pennines, you can cycle anywhere!”