Great Budworth

On Saturday I decided to get out of Manchester and do something different. I had been recommended Great Budworth. It was a bit tricky to get to – the train took almost an hour past fairly boring minor industrial stuff. I did see a large canal boat building yard. Then I had a half hour wait so wandered around the large Tesco’s near the bus stop. About the only thing different about the magazines was that the price was in ₤s. There was a café, a loo, and a machine into which you could put your coins and get a credit note for Tesco’s. The bus wandered around some suburbs and dropped me on a road and I walked into this little village that is quite quaint. The houses are , apparently, typical Cheshire houses and most open directly onto the street. Most had window boxes with colourful flowers. 2 postmen on foot said hullo, several locals said hullo. There was a large group of men wearing vests with ‘Community Pay Back’ written on them working in the grounds of the large church. Several of them passed me and they all said hullo.
I have decided it is just Londoners on public transport who keep to themselves. I wandered around and through the village. On the outskirts I saw an elaborately constructed sign pointing to an “Ice Cream Farm and Tea Room”. I wonder what method of farming is used to gather the ice creams? I found a signposted path that seemed to go round the edge of the village that was good.

Then I went back to the centre of town and went into the large parish church of St Mary’s and All Saints. Parts of it were built in the 14th century, the rest late 15th mainly. I had 2 hours to spend in the town because of the infrequent buses on a Saturday so sat down and listened to someone playing the organ. He looked quite old from the back, but when he tottered out I saw that he was very very old. There was nothing wrong with his fingers – it was good music. According to the pamphlet the organ is a ‘rare and fine example of the work of Samuel Renn’. There was also a children’s play area separated from the rest of the church by a nicely carved low timber wall. Inside there were toys – but the biggest was a large Noah’s Ark with lots of animals. There is a active group of combined churches in Cheshire that have all sorts of activities , eg a ‘ride and stride’ day, an agricultural chaplaincy, a second hand Christian book stall . The pub ( the only source of a drink on a Sunday in the town) still had not opened so I found a local to talk to. The return bus was late and I only just made the train I wanted to catch with the aid of a very undignified dash through Tesco’s car park.

Assorted members of the wedding gathering were meeting for a late lunch and I was just back in time.