St. Margaret's Church, Stratton St. Margaret's

“I think everybody has their own way of looking at their lives as some kind of pilgrimage. Some people will see their role as a pilgrim in terms of setting up a fine family, or establishing a business inheritance. Everyone's got their own definition. Mine, I suppose, is to know myself.”
Eric Clapton
 
Rather belatedly – forty years late – managed to find the resting place of a friend who died a few years after we left university. I only found out well after the funeral had taken place and didn’t follow up at the time (life, a girlfriend and a first house took over, for many years). When I did follow it up there was no connection to find where his resting place was; family history research had shown me that just turning up unprepared at a cemetery years after the event didn’t guarantee any results. I made a detour via Swindon on my way to Surrey in June to visit a crematorium – I get to all the fun places – without success, initially. They were very helpful and made a couple of suggestions to follow up on my return home, which I did after the dust had settled on my weekend away. My enquiry got passed on to a couple of other sources and amazingly I had a response, with coffee and cake on offer too! When I arrived, word had got around about this ‘unusual’ enquiry, and I was made to feel an honoured guest and welcomed for my coffee and home-made cake before being escorted to the rose garden – which there would have been absolutely no chance of finding unaided. Plenty of time alone to do my thing before returning for a longer chat with 'Rev.', and getting a recommendation for lunch on my return journey.