Road Verges problem

Update - from what I can tell the solid lines that we are talking about mark the edge of the carridgeway. I would conclude that if you are to the left of the line you would not be considered to be 'on' the carridgeway but alongside it. It's splitting hairs but I suppose it might affect your rights if you were involved in a collision as you might be considered to be riding off-road in close proximity to the carridgeway. It would be interesting to know for sure.

Personally I generally stay to the right of the white line, however much the lorry drivers get annoyed. The area the other side of the white line is generally full of junk. On a practical level you are more likely to pick up punctures and from a safety perspective being on the carridgeway proper gives you room to manuvere in the case of a close pass or other silly action by a driver (better than ditching into the hedge). It also means that you can avoid potholes and other obsticles by moving around them to the left rather than darting out to the right into the traffic flow.

The only exception that I make to this is if I'm climbing particuarly slowly, I don't mind keeping out of the way in this situation and hazards in the road come up slowly enough to avoid them without too much trouble.

I'm not sure what the official advice/law is on this, but I'm sure that the line doesn't indicate a cycle lane. I think that it's actually a hard shoulder and have a feeling that it should only be used in emergencies but I'm not certain.