One Amazing Day!

Church crawling in aid of Ride & Stride Historic Churches Day – Saturday 14th September 2013  (See the item below dated 29th August.  Sorry – no time to take photos on this ride!)

It was just that – one simply amazing day.  Given a head start by a headlong dash by car to the railway station nearest North Bovey (answer below), I took my bike on the train to Barnstaple, and then did a 45-mile circuit in brilliant sunshine, with views of golden sandy beaches filled by people enjoying the sun and the sea.  The route from Barnstaple led via Braunton, Croyde and Woolacombe, before taking an easterly course for about five miles, then heading back south for the train home:  Ilfracombe, sadly, I considered a bid too far!

On the final leg of this circuit, I visited the most secluded church of all, a modest and ancient building nestling in the lea of its barton, where the owner found me looking for the church and offered most welcome coffee and biscuits which I enjoyed on a lawn where a cockerel and some geese were pecking.  After this idyll, it was literally downhill all the way back to the station.  I did a final few visitations, and another 15 miles, after leaving the train at Yeoford, and discovered that churches in mid-Devon were much more geared up to this annual event than those in North Devon – open, warm, welcoming and well-kept as they almost all were.

If you offered me sponsorship, thanks very much indeed: I will be in touch unless you have already given me your donation.  If you haven’t indicated support for this, then it is NOT TOO LATE!  You can avoid yet another unwanted (!) phone call by phoning me on 01647 440113 or emailing me at lionel@homebound.org.uk and I will suggest pain-free ways of making a donation.

For me, the biggest encouragement was not the beauty of these churches, but their very existence – keeping alive the faith handed down through the ages for generations yet to be born.  This is what it’s all about, and as I moved around on my bike, I was constantly returning thanks to God for giving us not only such beauty, in both churches and creation, but also the gift of life itself.  Make the most of it – I certainly did that Saturday!

And so for the bottom line!  (No, actually I didn’t feel too sore after this lot, but another ten miles might have killed me.  Next time I’ll go for broke.)  Total distance covered by bike: 60 miles.  Total number of churches visited: 18 active churches actually entered, plus four visited but found to be locked (mostly in Barnstaple), three passed but not actually visited, and three church buildings no longer used as churches — giving an absolute maximum of 28 churches passed or visited.

Thanks very much to all who have given, or who have yet to give, support for this  — Lionel Holmes