Categories
Retro gaming

Getting to RMC The Cave without a car

I live near to the most amazing retro gaming museum called RMC The Cave, which just happens to be in my hometown in Gloucestershire.

So if you’re planning a visit to The Cave, and you’d like to get there without a car, this is the info for you. I’ll keep it up to date with any bus/path changes. Please let me know if you spot any mistakes.

Last updated: 21 January 2023.

By bus from Stroud

It’s not difficult to get to the cave by bus, but Stroud doesn’t have the public transport infrastructure that a city has, so there’s a bit more local knowledge needed. Don’t worry I’ve got you.

The Stagecoach 67 bus will take you most of the way to the cave, but there is still a ~22 ish minute walk from the closest bus stop to The Cave.

A day rider will cost you about £3.80.

Where the 67 bus stops outside Lloyds back in Stroud.
The 67 bus stop outside Lloyds bank in Stroud

The bus stop you need is outside Lloyds bank in Stroud, which is ~3 minute walk from the train station. There’s also a taxi rank next to the bus stop if you get stuck.

The buses are every 30 minutes, currently the buses to the cave do not operate on Sundays.

You might want to download the Stagecoach app for the live map and bus times. Also, since Covid there have been some regular bus cancelations, so you might want to keep an eye on the Stagecoach West Twitter account too. (As cancellations are not listed in the app).

How to get there

You’ll need to get off at Bourne Estate or Toadsmoor Road stop in Brimscombe. It’ll take about 10 minutes on the bus to get there.

Ring the bell when you see the sign for Felt Cafe (or watch for when you approach the cafe on a map app). There are no screens on the bus to say where you are and there are only paper timetables on the stops.

The bus route in blue and the walk route in orange. View the map in detail.

From here you have two options for walking (~22 minutes)

  1. Walk along the road to Chalford industrial estate (the traffic is a bit fast, and you will need to cross the road back and forth for a pavement, so sorry about that).
  2. See some lovely Stroud greenery and go along the canal tow path. To do this cross the road and follow the tow path going left past the bike shop. It could be a bit muddy and bumpy in wet weather, but you’ll have a beautiful, natural walk to the cave along between the canal and River Frome. You’ll pass through two tunnels, and there are two series of steps to go up/down.
The towpath to The Cave by the Felt Cafe
The towpath to The Cave by the Felt Cafe

Towpath partial closure
They’ve closed about 100m of the towpath temporarily this summer for redevelopment. If you’ve gotten off the bus by Felt Cafe, When you reach the blocked off area, follow the road under a very large tunnel, then take the steps on the right hand side (after the tunnel) to get back to road level.
Follow the road here until you can see the Pavilion (Indian Restaurant), opposite this there is a railway crossing to get back on the towpath.

The side of Belvedere mill witha Heber sign
The Cave is on the top floor of this mill, follow The Cave signs.

The Cave will be on your right hand side (after a 20 min walk) once you emerge from the path. Follow the signs for the right entrance to use.

Getting back

The best bus stop to return from is on the same side as Felt Cafe, you’ll need to continue walking past the cafe (towards the garage) to see it. Check that the 67 bus stops there and use the live map to check you’re in the right place. Your day rider ticket will take you back to town.

The bus stop outside the old Peacocks shop.
This is the best place to get off for the train station – just before the post office.

Get off the bus outside Peacocks to be near the train station, failing that the next stop is at the bottom of Merrywalks (but you’ll need to walk back up the hill to get to the train station).

By Bike

The road is faster, but it’s not a very pleasant road to cycle on due to traffic speed, narrowness and people overtaking you closely.

A map of the Stroud area showing the two bike routes to the cave.
The towpath route is shown in pink, and the road in green. View the map in detail.

Road

The road surface is fine, it’s a little bumpy in places. The speed limits vary from 40-60mph. It takes about 20 minutes, but it’s not a very pleasant road to cycle on due to traffic speed, narrowness and people overtaking you closely.

Please note in winter or on late nights, there is very little streetlight from Chalford to Brimscombe and you will need a decent set of lights to see the bumps in the road.

There is a steady gradient uphill for the last mile or so but I’d describe it as a nice, gentle hill (for Stroud).

Towpath

It takes me about 25 minutes to cycle to The Cave from Stroud along the towpath, it’s about 4 miles (depends on your speed).

The towpath entrance that you need next to some lock gates.
The entrance to the towpath at Wallbridge, Stroud

For the towpath find the lock gate at Wallbridge (down from the Lockkeepers Cafe), after about 5 minutes you’ll eventually reach a crossroads (after a tunnel) with a signpost, follow the sign up to the right to Brimscombe, and follow the road along for a short distance to get back on the towpath.

Towpath partial closure

They’ve closed about 100m of the towpath temporarily this summer for redevelopment. So at the moment it might be best to cycle on the road from the crossroads at Brimscombe lane. Otherwise you’ll need to carry your bike through a couple gates and some steps on the towpath (follow the walk instructions above. The pavements on the road are narrow and very, very bumpy and unpleasant to cycle on, but that’s another option.

It’s a shared used path so please be sensible when it comes to speed and be kind to others. There are two spots that will require you to carry your bike up/down stairs. One of these has a step free route (but one) right by the cave does now.

I would not recommend cycling on the towpath in the dark, there are large stretches with no lights at all. The surface is very bumpy and rough in places (it starts off very tidy) so it’s not suitable for road bike tyres.

Feedback

Hope that helps, please let me know if there are any updates or if you have any issues.

Categories
Sustainability

How our heat pump installation went

Following on from my last blog post about how we researched our heat pump. We’ve just finished having the unit, new equipment, electrics and plumbing done. Our home has been upgraded with a heat pump.

It’s exciting to finally have one in our garden after months of researching it. There’s lots of information online about how heat pumps work but not quite so much on how the install goes and what’s involved in that step by step. So here’s a breakdown to everything that happened and what to expect.

How it went

This is just my experience of installation, your home and therefore your setup and experience may be entirely different, but I really wanted to provide a bit more detail around what actually happened on each of the days.

We worked from home for the duration of the project. There was loud drilling and sawing for short periods of time on each day. Mostly because new pipes and power lines were drilled from the external house wall into our boiler cupboard area and near the fusebox.

The workmen worked quickly, put protective sheets down on our carpets, took off their shoes and made sure our indoor cats didn’t escape!

We had a really positive experience with the installation overall.

What to expect

  • We were advised there would be 5 days for work, but it ended up taking 6 (as the electrician wasn’t available to wrap up the project until the following week)
  • We were without hot water for around 3 days. This was while the old water storage tank was removed and the new tank (with immersion heater) was installed
  • We had about a half day without cold water while our old water storage tanks in the attic were removed and new water storage and expanders were installed
  • We were without heating for the duration of the project (for about a month beforehand due to boiler breaking) but if this wasn’t the case, we would have been without heating for 8 days, basically from the moment the installation started (with everything disconnected) to the moment the electrician commissioned the heatpump
  • There was no power in our home for about 2 hours in total on the final day while the heat pump was made live with the fuse box and other electrical work in the old boiler cupboard was done.

How to prepare for heat pump installation

We weren’t given any instructions for what to do to prepare our house, so this is what I’d suggest to do before your installer arrives.

  • Inform your neighbours ahead of time about the noise and roughly when you’ll complete, especially if you have any party walls
  • Completely empty your boiler cupboard, removing all shelving and any other objects, so only the plumbed units and electrical controls are in there with no other clutter
  • Clear the room around where your new tanks and plumbing will be (in our case the boiler cupboard), the installers had a lot of equipment and they’ll need somewhere to leave their equipment each night
  • Make clear space around where your current water storage is, or make your attic accessible as best you can as they’ll need space to work and remove these if applicable
  • Make space in the garden for all the equipment, pipes and boxes that need to be delivered and obviously, clear where the heat pump needs to go.

Day 1

Old boiler and tank is removed, showing the empty cupboard where they both were
Felt good to get rid of that old boiler and tank, also here’s the empty cupboard where they lived.
  • Delivery of items for install (including 200 litre water cylinder, 8kW Midea heat pump, 5x radiators, 1x towel radiator among many other things)
  • Removal of immersion heater, old boiler, and two old water storage tanks
  • Prepping the cupboard for the cylinder (new, stronger floor needed)
  • Placement of cylinder in cupboard
  • Removal of old pipes
  • Loss and restoration of cold water
  • Loss of hot water
  • Recycling of old tanks and boiler

Day 2

  • Removal of old radiators
  • Hanging new (larger) radiators
  • Plumbing in cylinder, adding extra stop valves
  • Installing most of the items in the old boiler cupboard
  • Putting the heat pump unit in place
  • Deciding on plumbing and wiring routes for heat pump
  • Recycling of old radiators

Day 3

You can see the water tank, expanders (white for cold water, red for hot water) the diverter at the top and the black magnetic filter on the right.
  • Hanging last radiator
  • Soldering all the new radiator connections
  • Drilling three holes into the external wall for the heat pump connections
  • Placing and soldering pipe route from outside of house into old boiler cupboard
  • Restoration of hot water (from new immersion heater)

Day 4

It’s important to have some space around all sides of the heat pump, this shows it quite well.
  • Moving our outdoor tap
  • Putting feet on the pump to give it clearance on our drain
  • Unboxing pump and placing it in our garden
  • Finishing external pipework and connecting to heat pump
  • System pressurised and air removed by bleeding radiators

Day 5 (half day)

Ready for the electrician to start.
  • Filling in old flue hole
  • Clearing rooms of tools and mess
  • Adding lagging (foam wrapping) to internal and external pipes
  • Registering our new water tank

Day 6 (half day)

  • Electrician visit – drilled holes for power wires to heat pump
  • Connected heat pump to home, from line to fuse box
  • Added an outside isolator switch
  • Added meter to calculate electricity usage just for heat pump
  • Wired in internal controls for heat pump and immersion heater
  • Installed Midea heat pump internal control and Honeywell wireless thermostat and receiver
  • Loss of about power for about two hours total on and off (with warning)
  • Commissioning of system and showing us how to use our three control panels (heat pump, thermostat, immersion heater)
  • Handover of manuals etc.

Wrapping up

So all in all it was a really positive experience and I am looking forward to how our system does in its first year. I’ll be collecting lots of data as I go to compare how the heat pump does to our old gas boiler.

Next time: initial impressions from our first few weeks with a heat pump and what it feels and sounds like inside and outside the house. Plus some starting impressions of how it’s managing heating our water and home.