Nether Winchenden

When I started chasing down famous churches that I could reach on the bike it seemed unrealistic to try and reach more than a dozen. I did that many in the first year. In the second year I reached another dozen, plus one I'd missed - to bring the running total to 25. This year I planned to reach another 15 and take the total to 40. Today I completed this year's list.

St Nicholas, in Nether Winchenden was the destination.

There's part of me that wants to organise things so that I end each of these tranches on some kind of climax, with a particularly impressive destination, some unexpected revelation, or deep insight in to the human condition.

That would be over-engineering it all though. There is nothing dramatic I can see about Nether Winchenden. I quite like the name of the village, the box pews in the church are very pleasant, and they were offering cream teas in the village for Bank Holiday Monday. But in reality the distinctive thing about the visit was seeing a nice old country church in a pleasant village.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to sample the cream teas, but I enjoyed 20 minutes sitting in the churchyard, eating my sandwich, and listening to the birds.

I reckon that's how things should be.

It wasn't an ideal day for a ride. We have had a lot of weather for this time of year, with a mix of sunny periods, scattered showers, and a couple of hail storms. There was a strong blustery head wind all the way out, which was a bit of a pain, but it helped move me along on the way back.

So the only dramatic revelation I can offer is that I seem to have discovered quite an effective scheme for getting myself out exploring on the bike. Rather than trying to invent a new system, I suspect I'll just continue along the same lines for bit longer.

The map of the first 40 is here