Rector's Letter

Transition Project

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Saturday 11th September dawned grey and with threatening rain. Worse, it looked windy.  As we loaded my bicycle on to the car, I wondered just how wet I was going to get on the ride back home from Brightlingsea.  Although we passed through rain as Judith drove me to my start point, it was bright and sunny when we arrived at the harbour in Brightlingsea.  We were amused there by the road signs indicating the maximum speed in the harbour area and wondered if it is possible to ride a bicycle at less than 5 mph. 

On the dot of 10am I set out visiting all the churches in Brightlingsea, stopping at St James, the church at which Michael Swindlehurst was incumbent for many years.  Yes, there was a church member there who remembered Michael well.  From there my route took me to Wivenhoe on the River Colne.  An ancient village, the church is right at the bottom of the hill.  It was Wivenhoe village day on Ride and Stride day, St Mary’s had a fete in the church grounds and I was photographed with the Mayor when signing in at the Catholic church!

From Wivenhoe, it was short ride through the grounds of Essex Unversity to reach Colchester.  I hadn’t realised just how big are the army barracks and how much this dominates the southern side of town. A highlight for me was finding the small Greek Orthodox church tucked in behind the castle with it’s wonderful decorations.  Well worth a visit.

Leaving bustling Colchester behind I set out towards the north east through West Bergholt to Aldham.  After lunch in the churchyard, I headed to Coggeshall via Great Tey.  I had never visited the centre of Coggeshall before.  What a lovely place and the buildings are so old that Saffron Walden looks positively young in comparison.  It was at Coggeshall that I found the only rain of the whole trip, 2 minutes of very heavy rain as I entered the town.

Still not really knowing where I was, I headed for Braintree, Bocking Churchstreet via Sisted.  Sisted is a pretty little village but memorable to me for the car that nearly knocked me down in the church car park!  Someone wasn’t looking where they were going.

Finally, as I left Bocking, I was heading for a place I’d been to previously – Great Bardfield.  The roads to get there were small and very wet.  On arriving as St Mary’s Great Bardfield, I was told that it had poured down for an hour over lunch. I missed all that and by now it was 4.30pm and bright, sunny and warm.

I was well on course to get to Saffron Walden via Thaxted before the churches closed at 6pm.  In fact I was heading ultimately for St John’s Little Walden where their centenary service was taking place attended by a number of former, and the current, curates.  But I didn’t get past Thaxted because my rear tyre punctured at Little Bardfield.  Rationalising that I didn’t have time to repair the puncture and still get to Walden by 6pm, I walked to Thaxted and visited all the churches there before they closed at 6pm. 
So near but not quite the final destination I was aiming for.  Nevertheless, I rode 59.5 miles and visited 46 churches.  And there was a very pleasant pub to sit outside, with refreshment, before Judith arrived to pick me up!

Overall the ride raised £1250 and half of this money will come back to St Mary’s.  Thank you very much to all who supported me in any way and for all the welcomers who were at St Mary’s that day to welcome the participants who visited.

Thank you.

Steve Hasler   

The above account will be printed in the November edition of Church News.