Winchester is a commuter suburb with a conscience. It lies about ten miles north-west of Boston, around a small, pretty centre at the head of the Mystic Lakes, and the town has had its own identity since 1850, when it was carved out of Woburn, Medford and Arlington. The commuter rail line runs through the middle, and a station and a row of old brick shops give the centre a Victorian character.
The Mystic Lakes, a pair of lakes at the edge of town, are the main natural feature, and a walk along the shore gives you a view across the water to the woods beyond. The Aberjona River, a modest stream that runs through the town and into the lakes, has a history that is less pretty. In the nineteenth century, tanneries and chemical works lined its banks, and the pollution from them became the subject of a notorious lawsuit in the 1980s, which was later the basis for the book and film A Civil Action, set in neighbouring Woburn. Today the river is cleaner, and the old industrial sites have been reclaimed.
The roads around Winchester are narrow and suburban, but on the north side, beyond the town, they rise into the wooded hills of the Middlesex Fells, and from there you can link up with quieter routes. In the early morning, a ride around the lakes is pleasant, with low sunlight on the water and joggers and cyclists out. Traffic builds quickly after seven o'clock, so go before the school run. The tarmac is mostly sound, but the roads are busy and the junctions are many, so this is no place to open the throttle.
This is the practical stop on a Fells ride: Winchester has fuel, banks, a few good cafes and a bakery, and Woburn and Arlington, each a few kilometres away, have the rest. The centre is pleasant for a stroll, and the common has benches that catch the sun. In autumn, when the maples turn, the whole town glows, and the Mystic Lakes are a good place to sit.