Going past the half course produced remarks of despair, further mimicry and finally, a most definite "that’s all" was called before the conductor could have a chance to even contemplate carrying on. I was that conductor but did not let such barracking get to me so just blushed in a cute manner. I use the word "cute" loosely of course.

On reaching Staverton the coach driver found that the front corner of the bus was too low to negotiate a certain bend into the village so it was decided that a lighter load would be necessary to allow the bus to retreat to a safe distance. The walk to the church was past the village hall which was full of life with a Saturday market going on and tea, coffee and bacon butties were more than willingly purchased even though breakfast had only been some 2 hours before.

To be absolutely honest at most towers I only had one ring or indeed later in the day did not turn up at all so the following few paragraphs whilst containing tower information may well be short of anecdotes from the day. I did find that a pair of ear muffs where placed on my head before my one ring, I don’t mean the ones that keep you snug in the winter either.

The driver of our coach, whilst having good experience of driving coaches around the narrow lanes of Devon certainly proved himself on this journey by having to reverse quite some way when a driver of a normal sized car refused to even try the short reverse back to the last junction. The turn into the square at Broadhempston was also very tricky but our driver also took this in his stride and got us to the lunchtime pub safely.

Broadhempston was once-upon-a-time Paul Pascoe’s home. Therefore, it proved a good stop as he knows the people who run the local pub. The beer here was good, the food was good and our group of some 28 people took over the entire restaurant area. Paul had allowed plenty of time for lunch which culminated in a vocally strong "Happy Birthday" and the hugest sponge cake ever seen being presented to Doug Bell to celebrate his impending 60th Birthday. Doug, whilst "caught on the hop", produced a few words which mostly revolved around the extras he will get as an older person, such as a bus pass, fuel allowance and even £10 from Westminster Council to buy himself a Christmas present. The latter mostly to be spent on a glass or two of Chardonnay.