Day 24 of the walk, our break for 11s was on a bench in the churchyard of St Gregory at Weare before we set off across the last part of the Levels. A local dogwalker stopped to ask us if we were looking for Frankie Howard’s grave. We weren’t.
Earlier in the morning, not long after I left Blackford, a man in a white van stopped to ask me if I wanted 4 bags of compost that were in the back of his van. I didn’t.
I mention these incidents only to illustrate some of the more humorous moments on the walk. We do have some laughs. There are also occasional incidents of adventure peril, usually when I take an unplanned or unscheduled route or detour. Recently some of these have involved Road Closed notices. At Stoughton cross the road was closed but having established through sign language (the road works were noisy) that I was on foot, I was waved through.
On other occasions it includes mud. Inspite opf yesterday’s rain and more heavy rain last night there wasn’t as much mud as I’d expected this morning.
Later, after I joined the Strawberry Line and saw my first primrose for several days, I saw an unexplained notice saying Detour Ended. It wasn’t clear what the detour was or where it went. I carried on. Another notice told me that there was a tunnel ahead and to ‘use my light’s that I didn’t have. However before the tunnel there were more notices, this time arrows pointing in different directions. A small tree had fallen across the path but there were no clear instructions as to what action to take. I ducked under the fallen tree and into the dark tunnel.
After all this humour and peril I was glad Bob had found a fish and chip shop. He caught up with me before Winscombe and shepherded me to the chip shop. I ended the walk at the old Winscombe station.
On the way back we made a small detour via Sidcot school and took a photo of the Quaker meeting house there. I try to visit places on or near the route that link to other projects and interests. In this case, Sidcot school was the school attended by Arnold Wynne who is named on the Roll of Honour for WW1 in Silcoates Chapel. He was a Quaker which explains his education at Sidcot, a Quaker school. He taught natural sciences at Silcoates before WW1. I had pieced together much of his life during the commemoration of the centenary of the war. He was Killed in Action on 9th April 1917 at the Battle of Arras and my visit to Sidcot was one of the final pieces of the story.
Another side visit was to the church at Rodney Stoke, near where we are staying. The church contains a window that was dedicated in 1920 giving thanks for the return of all those from the parish who served in WW1, including four women. This means it was one of the Thankful Villages, nine of which are in Somerset, who remembered with gratitude that they lost no one during that war in which so many were lost.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
JAL 25.04.2019
24th Day of the End to End, Blackford to Winscombe via Weare.