Part Three Spring mini cycle tour

Day 2
Visiting the last three churches on my Wilts CCT cycle trail

#ancientchurches #cycletour

Draycot Cerne:
https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-james-church-draycot-cerne.html

Leigh Delamere:
https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-margaret-leigh-delamere.html

Inglesham:
https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-john-inglesham.html

I’m turning on to these minor roads thank goodness head towards my first church I’m now down in the aen valley the wilch aen valley so when I left Hill Martin I went back towards Liam for about half a hour then turned left so I basically cut over some hills and drop down in this really nice quiet flat and somewhere along here we get to a right hand turn 90° if you can imagine a geometric right angle with that’s that quarter of a circle symbol that’s pretty much what we’re doing that’s if we can get through this private ground that’s where I’m hoping we get to if not we just have to do the 90° straight Bend rather than the curve to avoid it okay but to leave this B road you can hear just over the other side of that Hill the M4 Motorway London to Bristol and South Wales can’t see it you can definitely hear it along here there’s a junction a rightand turn which would take us up over that which is the direction we’re heading but before we get there you may see what’s about to happen we’re going to take a turn through that private State somewhere through there that’s where the church is whether I can get access to or nots to be seen it’s supposed to be at 7 and 1/2 miles you can see we’re 7.2 so Hing in on it so this is our turning can we get through as you can see if we can’t there’s a B- Road up there so it looks unlocked here and it says pedestrian access only to St James Church jot C please isues Wicket gate not sure what that means but we’ll find out that lady’s just opened it with a cve I got through I think the Wicket gate means The Pedestrian swing gate this is nice isn’t it this is another of those roads I’ve ridden many times fact when I was a Time trailer so used to race along that b road back there and when was plotting the route I just couldn’t picture this where it was I recognized the name and of course I’ve never been to here before I’m just hoping the church itself is open oh this is nice isn’t it let’s seat along there Swan or another Swan long sign by look at it oh it’s beautiful you can just hear the Roar of the motorway it’s not that far away right was it there’s this one just looking at where the church is Oh look The Milk TS there this is what I’m so thankful for the GU in it’s really f as I come f with him but the lady said I’m not and that’s s back there clearly says I’m not oh this is so nice on my doorstep it really is had no idea this was here some of these small state churches can be really tucked away behind farm buildings there’s a couple that very easy to miss so I’m very aware that I don’t want to shoot through here too quick and miss it f up time I overshot the church there it is to my left I was so concentrated on following the ging track to make sure I didn’t go into people’s properties I missed this I got to the top gate and I’ve had to retrace and it says pass over the bridge Rising grassland and the Sith porch will be on your left hand side and look there it is some kind of dug out there right leave me bike and see if I can get in oh gosh look that wide garlic there and the porch is actually here St James drot so I rode right by it without spotting it as I said I was probably busy looking at the swan and following the GPS track I’ve literally ridden by it twice and didn’t spot it unfortunately I cannot get in I do need the key holder to give me access tells you there the number and also on the website it’s Lo I’m definitely going to come here on another day I can do this easily on a fairly shortest Road from bus I’ll ring up and arrange of time for when I can get access I just didn’t want to wait till 11:00 a.m. this morning it would just put too much pressure on me later in the day so as you cross that bridge there’s a sh Bend here it is through this Gap in the trees ever so easy to miss I know that cuz I missed it gosh absolutely beautiful noise you can here is a guy with the stammer there doing the launch look at that pie of a tree that looks like some Primal monster wow what an amazing place so I do need to go back around this way you can’t really access it that way cuz all that wild gu look I’m not treading through wild flowers okay so back that way back up through the farm Arch and then there’s a slight rise up and you’re back on the road that I want to actually back to the far March up past J cut house over the CD there’s the red we want up there we’re going to join it at 90° W this is absolutely fantastic just as we leave the post is coming in the gate house and we are tur right on this after we left the Parkland after about a mile you come up past the aoad and the motorway intersection north of chiam I didn’t really film it cuz it was all industrial States it’s quite built up but it’s all traffic lighted and laned and so I was able to safely navigate that takes me off this a429 road headed north and I’ve turned off left now we’re running parallel to the M4 as we did earlier but now instead of being over that way on the sight of it on the north of it heading towards the village of Lee delir okay I’m coming up to a bit of a dog leg I’ve just zoomed the route out so I can actually get an overview of what I’m doing so I’m coming up to a junction here I’ll be turning left doing the dog leg up there to lead delir and then I’ll be coming back changing direction heading Eastward whenever I head north it’s a very cold wind most of this afternoon will’ll be heading east Southeast and South through this lovely blue barell wood hear all this Birds on a fairly Quiet Road there’s a sign Le delir down there so homing in on it so going to do a a right hand Bend here and then it’s just a long quarter of a mile or so lead alir please drive carefully as I remember it from the planning the church is on the right hand side I Street viewed this one and there it is got quite a big lit gate by look at it there understand that that was a shelter for when they bought the deceased they would leave the coffins here before they were ready to go into church okay I’ve left me B under the L gate this thing’s charging so just reading up it says Church of St Margaret of Antioch I think that’s how you pronounce it Lee delare Wilshire and the overview is a dramatic Victorian confection I’m going to read more when I get inside cuz I’m struggling to read that in declare okay let’s go have a look lovely wooden structure the porch that lovely ecclesiastical door this church is open please come in but please close both doors when you leave to keep the out oh where’s the second door looks like may want to be a door across there quite dark I see if I can find some lights there may not be any unless it’s in the main body of the church that front there I love stain glass windows in here look at that as a pigeon I take oh my word look at that stained glass at the back wow that crucifixion isn’t it I’ve gone over to my phone for this bit of filming it deals with less light better that is absolutely stunning it’s worth coming to this church just to see that crucifixion Wow Let’s go back up into the Chanel just the one window casting light in you got South Windows North that’s the main East window stain gas is here absolutely amazing it’s worth coming to this church just to see that that is absolutely spectacular Oh meant to say last night I forgot I’ve done a really nice chat with elain and she said to me you know you’re welcome to come up to Valar and you know they may ask you to help wind the clock they do before starting the Belling I’m not quite sure why but I couldn’t really go up cuz I was in socks but she said I don’t suppose you play the organ de and I said no Frid night said oh we’ve got an organ we would just love someone to come along but you know the only organ players are gradually d off got left in the village so I’d love to have accommodated the episode if you’re an Oran player you to know Ching they would really really welcome you at Hill Mar go look at that it’s worth reading a bit here it’s quite interesting it says James Thompson built this church in 1846 built using parts of its 12th century predecessor such as the splendid Bell coat which can now be seen at sington school 1 m to the West the rest is impressively dramatic the gothic Gloom of the chel with its extravagant Ross carved and decorated in Many Colors contrast with the tremendous colors of the Great West window by wilmur yeah that sounds perfectly the Great West window and this is very Gothic I’m guessing that’s a wearos I’m not sure what it means I’ll have to look at it as usual just before I leave sign the visitor book so the last person for me was the 18th to the 4th the days the 23rd I put and see bad suet in Brackets exploring all Wich CCT churches by bicore winster Birmingham chiam K Australia Lee Del first visit this year so a local your taste oh yes it says about the B Tower can be seen by sington school a mile away that way you can see why so this is the penultimate Church St Margaret of Antioch and now we’re going to do a Direction Change most of the day we’re going to be heading that way eastwards towards Swindon on the very last Church of this trip St John the Baptist at englishan at 442 miles it’s going to be over 45 cuz I did that zigzag I’m through theate when I I passed the church by mistake heading East on the Rous sway as long as I’m heading east I’m quite warm and the wind’s beneficial the minute I just turned briefly North it’s cold and it’s quite hard work I love unusual place names cor SE Le I’ve been seeing these protest baners all morning I can’t claim to know what the issue is but something to do which threatens a way of local life I’m in the small Hamlet of Foxy I’ve just been in that church over there it’s wonderful 12:30 I suppose the next shop I see I’ll pick myself a sandwich it’s about 5 to 1 and I’m in the middle of Mom’s brief I’m in the Market Square and this has come just at the right time there’s a shop just opposite I’ve used it many times before got myself a sandwich a soft drink being circular Rock tag I can just find exactly where is this windy so that this is a nice wind shelter this this is exactly what I was looking for yesterday something like this I even had sandwiches with me I just could not find anywhere warm and at the window to sit and then consequently I got quite hungry by midafternoon I roughly know where I am but I’m trying not to think too much about it cuz I just like the buzz of the adventure and just being on unfamiliar roads with a different purpose but I’ve definitely come past the landmark I recognize as this big lake when I used to ride the heart of England 300 km Oru from sest I’d ride up on the Friday afternoon i’ sleep in the church Hall overnight then start and then at the Finish I’d ride back home on the Sunday and you know the out and back rout would come by here so I know where I am I’m basically 5 or 6 miles set of s ancestor a bit about leaving the church this morning when Elena showed me around yesterday there wasn’t too much detail you know wasn’t a big health and safety briefing anything like that she just told me where the lights were and what I needed to know and she did just run through the security procedures that you know she asked me to perform before I left I won’t go into detail but and then she just asked me a rough time she thought I’d be leaving I said between 900 and 10: as it turned out it was bang on 9 a.m. and she just said would you just text me when you go just to let me know and then I’ll pop around and you know do what I need to do and so I did 15 20 minutes later got a really nice text up say oh I hope you’re warm enough last night thank you very much hope you enjoyed your stage just just such a lovely after the visit you know it’s just such a personal touch I’ve just put my head down after lunch I’m making fairly good progress in this straight road but look where I am Lee Crossroads you know that expression dotting the eyes and crossing the te’s I’m actually crossing the tea cuz I came up this way yesterday up to Lee backtrack back and then headed that way to the Champion Church at Hill Martin I did consider popping into Lee today because I’m clearly going very very close to it if I had gone to Lee now today it have made today well over 60 miles and time consuming and yesterday very short so I just that’s the reason although I’m passing Lee now I decided to go there yesterday in fact talking about the route I design the route in two halves and then just stitch them together and I was originally going to leave the championships today and got to Ingleton first and then spend all afternoon coming back West and that would have made the day 74 miles and I just thought I don’t want to wake up in a champing church and feel I’ve got to be on the road really early and if there’s a southwesterly which quite often is I’ll be most of the day into the wind and then I thought well I could always hop into chippingham and get the train home and that was almost the same distance as going going a few miles further to Bass and I just S no no no and then I just reversed it and as I said the the days instantly seem to sort of like Mel quite nicely actually you had a 59 and a 56 just passed through the lovely town of cricklade leaving on what was Once Upon a Time the old Main Road P all these water Meadows it since been bypassed and that’s the bypass it’s part of a big north to south Trunk Road I think it’s 419 we got to get over the other side of that and there’s a lovely cut through here I discovered this when I was doing my Dy AAC series and there’s nowhere to find this without GPS so I I’ll try and describe what’s happening we’re actually going to go alongside that main road and it looks like we’re riding into oncoming traffic there’s a bit of footway and cycleway and then there’ll be a bridge going over it and you have to curl around go go up you have curl around the bridge climb up to it it’s about 20 ft higher than this road cross this road and then filter into a road that’s going in our Direction I’ll try and film this because this is such a great example of how GPS has allowed me to find little cut throughs like this as I said it’s not just a bypass it’s a major Trunk Road there’s no way i’ want to cycle on that see what I mean one and that’s what we’re heading for that bridge up there that gives you a better idea the complexity on this G in now we’re moving the only thing it can get a little bit muddy under a sometimes I’d rather have a muddy bike than trying to ride on that road here we go start being clean up to the road bridge very tight B there and it brings you out on this road bridge there we are a couple of minutes later we’re up on the bridge so we come along there snake through there it can get a bit muddy sometimes that wasn’t too bad at all I’ve seen it a lot worse in the midle GL it feels up midafternoon appear to be making good progress I think now is a good time to do a quick progress check so I just recognized this down up near State so I know the village is down out me so I know where I am when I’m on familiar ground I normally bring two Gams out so that’s the modern one that’s the older one they’re both good at something but they’re both not good at both if that makes sense that’s good for some things that’s good for other things so you can see I’m coming up to 36 miles in today and the church as I remember it was 44 and a half it’s probably going to be 45 so about less than 10 miles to go and that’s telling me the distance to go I just saw that was 20 miles and if I stop this quickly I can do this on the road but it’s easier to do it stopping look 8 minutes past 3 so we should be at the church by about what by about 4 10 4 something like that plenty of chance to look around i’ imagine swindon’s going to be about round at 5 bit after I’m in no rush whatsoever I’m not a racing cycl some Tor Cy this I don’t want to get to Swindon too early cuz it may have to spend too long in weather spoons and you know nice as the thought that is I want a meal in a couple of beers I don’t want a long session test of Destruction so I may this slow down a little bit actually that’s why it’s quite good to do this sometimes you think oh I need to speed up and other times no just stop a few times maybe have a bite of chocolate or something like that I certainly don’t want to rest on to get the last Church it be quite a milestone finishing my project that started on New Year’s Day want of a better Express New Year resolution I’ve seen through well I will when I get to engam church the final one anyway let’s get going and we’re heading that way I’ve just been sign posted off that road shot right on turn it’s called dud drove along here says no through road but I know you can get through on a bikes I’ve used this road before this is lovely roiding along here look at this agricultural traffic free straight as a roller as I home in on my final Church in gam really started to get excited about getting there now along this drove Road I’ve now been turned off left down this gravel track you can see it’s open for vehicles up to about 7 and a half tons I remember now I go south of some Lakes the main road would have taken me north of them and this is South i’ I Street viewed this because when I saw it was Offroad I thought oh do I really want that at the end of the day I had it in my head this bit of rough stuff was after English him clearly it’s just before so we’re going s of some Lakes I can actually hear swans and ducks and everything over there so I’m quite looking forward to this I’ll try to film a bit this I can see the water to my left just through those trees can hear lots of ducks cracking hoping they’ll be an opening somewhere where we can get a good view of it so far not too bad going to be a bit muddy in places I’ve got a rag to clean my bat down just as I cleaned it down before the church last night I want to clean it down before I got on the train tonight oh is this a Viewpoint I can stop at if ID carried on up that road before I turned down the drove Road I’d have been the other side of the lake so if this was too mud I knew there was an alternative but this is really nice [Music] because this is used for Lake access there’s a private access back there to the lake you can see they put a lot of medium siiz aggregate down it’s actually quite hard to ride on well look at that bike racks there bird hide access to the lake and then back on it’s not muddy but I’d rather ride on that than the gravel that’s actually quite hard work going along there 42 and 1/2 miles so 2 2 and 1 half miles to the church funny is that how quickly yeah Road up to someone’s house look back on time I really enjoyed that that was nice and all of a sudden it just feels like you’re coming into a CW Village look bford Stow say Swindon Church Tower just feels very cops [Music] Wy so I just got us to come up the pavement here cuz I can see us coming over a bridge I thought once have a look at the view how nice is that we’re on [Music] with in about mile mile and a half two two miles maximum we’re going to be there Engish him I saw that sun coming up from the distance so great here we are englon and it’s not it’s the B for swindling as you come up to the r i noticed my garments pointing me down a dog Ling there it is ingleson down there you get a burst of traffic every now again the traffic lights on that bridge done that the final run in to the final Church of the welshire church’s conservation trust collection of 21 and the 11th century Church looks like the door’s been kicked in and P locked hope there’s access okay let’s go inside if can looks like the remains of an old preaching cross in the yard is that our entrance looks kind of sort vandalos doesn’t it looks like there was something in there stat maybe St John this door is unlocated to a church before Oh it goes in then a step into the porch oh this is a bit more like it St John the Baptist englon n m this no door think I’m just going to leave that open until I get inside can we can’t we yes hat off wow this does feel old very old electric lights can see any switches yet I’m not sure if I want them to be honest all these box pews bu’s table there all Chanel allall paintings gosh this does feel very very old step into the chancel that would have been the equivalent of a stained glass window in its day wall painting the sound is I can hear the wind blowing through the roof and over that way just the Roar of traffic on that road which I hope I’m not going to be on for much longer but if I am I am hey ho Stone card in the wall okay I’ve got the page up St John the Baptist English and welshire the overview an ancient painted wonder the exquisitly beautiful and fascinating 13th century Church stand on a gentle rise of land above Waterside Meadows near the TS oh that’s right that’s the TS back there only Stones thrown from the t’s pass it is a frequent stopping point for Walkers pioneering Victorian designer William Morris who lived at nearby KS cot oversaw St John’s Restoration in the 19th century ensur it kept its original medieval identity so back there they said 11 Century here they say in 13th century the amazing series of paintings from the 13th to the 19th century cover the walls often one painted over another in places several layers thick that’s quite a hard p p isn’t it same plate bulbs just don’t fit here do they so as usual visitors book somebody was here today part of to from Victoria British Colum I Canada beautiful place of worship I just got the rout up on my app just to give me an idea if I’m going to be on that road very long I was hoping i’ turn straight on to Lanes but clearly not gosh you can see how far out the ban Swindon comes it was literally just after you cross the T there so we are here turn that talk leg I am going to be on that road for about 4 miles to highw and then you the outskirts of swind so I could have gone straight to the railway station but I’ve taken these side streets around here to weather spoons about there about half 4 now 25 to 5 if I could be eating my meal in weather spoons by about 20 P 6 P 6 I’ll be happy right let’s go and face that traffic all I can hear outside is the Roar of that traffic and it looks I’ve got it probably most of the way into swimon so I’ve just got to live for that I’m going to have a wand around the church side first old preaching crossb you look at it yeah I wonder why there used to be utas still here I mean nowadays it’s just Bally uh a suburb of swinden really I guess near the temps for Walkers possibly as I said closed in the ’90s like so many unfortunately well apart from the noise it’s lovely here okay time to make my way down to Swindon change of plan coming into Swindon less than three miles to go starting to get built up and I thought you know I could murder fishing chips if I see fish and chip shop I might stop and get some as soon as I had that thought I stopped some traffic lights there was like set back a few shops and the end one was fish and chips fantastic really friendly girls in there said I don’t suppose there’s anywhere nearby I could sit down and eat this a par said yeah over the road follow the alleyway all the way down to the end you come this play area even got a bin so going to tuck into that it’s 6:30 p.m. and I’m at station so let me just briefly tell you what happened when I joined that main road at English it was quite unpleasant for a while cuz you got short stretches of clear traffic and then you’ll get a burst of traffic go by you and it’s because of the traffic lights out the bridge luckily it was not hard work physically it was easy slightly downhill and out of tail so I just cranked it along there then as I came in Swindon I thought I may just head for the railway station and sit in the waiting room not quite appeals for me to be honest I really don’t F the pr tonight open my trains left Paddington oh this looks like a nice Sun this will doing be fine there you can see me trains doing at 1922 gets into B 1946 so at 24 minutes and that’s including stop at Chipman it’s the London Express Paddington to Bristol [Music] okay that’s me back in bass I actually got on nearly a train that was running late cuz my train was running late and it left run about the same time as my train would have left does that make sense anyway it’s just gone 8:00 p.m. I’m back in bath got my loots on ready for about a 10minute ride home once I get out of this road go alongside the river it’s nearly traffic free all the way back to my house hope you’ve enjoyed coming along if you got this far thanks so much for watching see you soon