Bus Challenge No 13!

Into Bath this morning to take a second bus across the county border into Wiltshire, and to the Cotswold wool village of Colerne, with beautiful views over the Box Valley along the way.

My guide for the day was a friend who used to live in Colerne. We spent a lovely few hours reminiscing and wandering around the village, and along country lanes, and after expending all that energy we thought we deserved lunch in the village pub!

The medieval church of St John the Baptist stands at the heart of the village, and has a few tales of its own to tell. The old church clock only has one hand as in bygone times, village life moved at its own pace and no one needed to know the exact time, only the nearest hour.

"According to village legend, a Colerne parson in former years owned a donkey to which he was much attached. While the clergyman was away, the unfortunate ass died, and the sexton felt it proper to have the beast buried in consecrated ground. But the undertaker, inexperienced in interring specimens of E. asinus, neglected to dig the grave wide and deep enough, so the donkey was buried feet-up with its hooves sticking out." Wikipedia (A lady we met in the church told us how she remembered postcards being sold showing a photo of the poor donkey's feet sticking up in the air through the ground! Apparently there was quite a smell!!)

The third tale, and the most recent - When we entered the church, we were met by three friendly ladies who told us we had just missed coffee and a slice of the Vicar's delicious banana cake. My friend then told them how she had lived in Colerne for 12 years. One of the ladies asked when and where, and when my friend told her, the lady said, "You must have bought the house from JN," to which my friend said, "I am JN!!!" It turned out that they used to be neighbours and good friends but hadn't seen each other for 30 years and consequently didn't recognise each other!

Total bus journey times = 2 hour 10 mins
Total waiting times in between buses = 20 mins
Total journey time = 2 hours 30 mins