Northbridge is an old mill town on the Blackstone River, and the Blackstone is a bigger part of American history than its modest size suggests. The river drops about a hundred metres on its way from Worcester to Providence, and in the early nineteenth century that fall of water powered a string of textile mills that helped start the American Industrial Revolution. The canal built along it in 1828 carried goods and cotton between Worcester and the sea, and the valley is now a national historical park, strung with mill villages, locks, towpaths and old brick factories.
Whitinsville, the main village in Northbridge, grew up around the Whitin Machine Works, a firm that made textile machinery and sent it all over the world, and the Whitin family built much of the town, including large houses, a church and a community centre. Even now it has the feel of a company town that took itself seriously, with solid brick and stone and a well-kept main street. It is a population of about fourteen thousand, mostly residential, and it has plenty of places for coffee and lunch.
The riding around the valley is mellow and winding. Route 122 and the smaller roads climb over low, wooded hills, drop into the river valley and cross it on old bridges, with stone walls, farms and mill ponds on either side. The surface is mixed, with frost heave in spring and patched sections, and you should watch for sand in the corners and for the usual New England hazard of a narrow road with a blind brow. Upton State Forest lies a short way to the north-east, with quiet woodland roads that are lovely in the autumn.
The towpath along the river is now a trail for walkers and cyclists, and at several points in the valley you can stop to look at a lock or an old mill race. The industrial landscape, now softened by trees and water, has a quiet beauty that is easy to miss if you are in a hurry. Northbridge has plenty of fuel, with stations on the main roads, and Uxbridge and Upton, a few kilometres off, have more. The best months are May to October, with the leaves turning in the first weeks of October.