Clifton Weir, Wednesday
Bus passes to the fore, we headed for Wantage by Stagecoach bus: unlike our last journey with last one of their rivals, this one had suspension!
Approaching a roundabout near Wantage, there was a DeHavilland Venom mounted on a pole, where else would you expect to see one? The aircraft had it's first flight in 1949 and entered squadron service in 1952, I had a model of one from a Frog plastic kit which crashed in flames as did most of my models that I was unhappy with the result of my painting skills. Was it really that long ago, more than half a century - ouch!
Disembarking in the Market place we started our look around Wantage; it was a good, varied collection of buildings that remained unspoilt above street level. The shop now occupied by OXFAM was once a cycle repairer as can be deduced by the ancient cast iron sign on the wall, placed there by the Cyclists Touring Club.
The church of Saints Peter and Paul was in a dominant position and quite right too, no high buildings to spoil it's situation. We had a look around inside and amongst the interesting contents was a wall mounted brass effigy of a Knight, in fact, the father in law of Dick Whittington. The roof above the nave was supported on hammer beams with good carved pediments, all dating from the fifteenth century; the chancel stalls of the same date have misericords and fine carving on the bench ends.
We sat outside to have our lunch when the sound of the organ reached us. A young lady was, as the verger described it 'practising'. She was playing the Toccata by Widor and very nicely. If that was a practice, the real thing will be amazing.
After walking down most of the small alleys and back streets, we considered that we had seen sufficient of Wantage; a nice small town. The bus journey back to Abingdon took us past the headquarters of Williams F1 racing team at Grove. The security fencing and gatehouse would have done GCHQ proud!
