Thornbury Wayfinders

Last Saturday my son Nick and I led the Ride and Stride Walk from the tin church of St Mary’s Shepperdine to St Arilda’s Oldbury and thence back to St Mary’s Thornbury and on to St Paul’s The Hackett.

We were a select little band. Nick and I wondered if we were going to have to walk on our own after Libby had dropped us off. Had everyone had been put off by the threatened downpours? But soon we were joined by Lynda and Peter Frost – experienced walkers both and a little later Maggie Taylor. We were expecting one more, but a telephone call confirmed that she was allergic to wet walking.

As it happened, the rain held off we we made good time along the river bank and past the Nuclear power Station to the sailing club. Rain was threatening, however, and we decided to trim the route a little and take a short cut via the excellent village shop. I was disappointed in eco-friendly scoop that left my fingers covered in ice cream as we strode up the hill to the church of St Arilda’s on the hill to arrive ahead of the rain.

I had a wee listen to the recording of local voices that had been put together by the Forgotten Landscape team while we were waiting for some more people to arrive.

I was thinking about the patronal walk that is being planned for August next year, which is going to join together the two St Mary’s on opposite sides of the former Oldbury Marsh. It seems that the Virgin Mary is the favourite church patron of lowland parishes hereabouts. There is St Mary’s Berkeley up river. And St Mary of Malmesbury at Littleton on Severn and St Mary again at Olveston. It’s the same on the other side of the Severn – St Mary Chepstow, St Mary and St Peter at Tidenham, St Mary at Aylburton and St Mary again at Lydney. It seems that St Mary offers protection against Fire, Flood, Severe Storms, Damaging Winds, Water damage and Earthquakes. In the absence of churches a Marian Mark in the cellar might do the trick as I have recently been told. It could be a long Patronal walk!

It wasn’t long before The Reverend Joy joined us with her French Bulldogs (I think) and Meg Adnams – who had got me involved in a talk about Giant Redwoods at Alexandra Lodge. After we had eaten our lunches, we set off a bit earlier than planned for the rather shorter walk to St Mary’s Thornbury. It was a productive journey. And have just eaten half of the mushrooms I picked on the way. I was delighted to see a Painted Lady butterfly flitting along a hedgerow and an elegant white egret flew up from a cattle watering place. I also learnt a lot from Reverend Joy about female variants of the vicious techniques employed in the front row of a scrum and something about octopi (or possibly octopuses) as evidence of necessary weirdness.

We arrived relatively dry at St Mary’s having passed a pair of Giant Redwoods on the way.

We spent a pleasant interlude in the church, which involved coffee and cake, if I remember rightly. It was here that we exchanged the Reverend Helen for the Reverend Joy, who had to take her pooches home to the new vicarage. It turned out that Nick and Helen had several friends and acquaintances in common, though I didn’t follow that bit.

We set off a bit early again, having picked up Marian from the “Grow your own Food” group. This may have been a mistake because we were clobbered by a brief rain shower on the way to the Badger Road “Country Park.” We finished by heading along Clay Lane to St Paul’s the Hackett. where we were met by the Reverend Tom, who had invented the route in the first place. He treated us to a brief service, but also tea and biscuits and also offered lifts to abandoned cars.

Nick and I headed of through Crossways (or Hackett) Wood to catch a bus, but one sped past whilst we were still in the wood – so I had to phone Libby for a lift!