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Church of St Mary, Gainford
Church of St Mary, Shipton Solers
Church of St Mary the Virgin, South Darley
Church of St Mary, Old Swinford
Church of St Mary, Bungay
Church of St Mary, Rickinghall
Church of St Mary, Somerleyton
Church of St Mary, Felmersham
Church of St Mary, Marston-on-Dove
Me, on the narrowboat 'Sculptor' at Stoke Bruerne
Church of St Mary, East Ruston
Church of St Mary, Burford
Church of St Mary, Tivetshall St Mary
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Elsing
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stevington
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Northrepps
Church of St Mary, Brome
Church of St Mary, Haversham
Me, on a bridge over the Oxford canal
Church of St Mary, West Somerton
Church of St Mary, Fawley
Me, in a tree at the Church of St Mary, Swerford
Church of St Mary of Pity, Burgate
Church of St Mary, Fairford
Church of St Mary, Oakley

Big Ted Online

Travels of a Bear (with splendid fur!)

An Interesting Journey

When I'm away on holiday and doing my Roving Ambassador thing, I don't only visit St Mary's churches (while that's quite fun, it soon becomes rather boring!).

Me at Embsay stationSo, when I went on holiday to Yorkshire in May 2019, as a change from visiting churches (see Lancashire and Yorkshire), I travelled to a place called Embsay. I visited the church, which just happens to be a St Mary, but then I went on a very special journey on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway – but, even more exciting, I didn't travel on a steam train: I went on a 1903 North Eastern Railway Electric Autocar!

The autocarAn autocar is a sort of cross between a train and a bus. It has an engine producing power for its electric motors and it runs on railway lines. Apparently, it used to be powered by a petrol engine but for some reason that’s not very safe, so it’s got a diesel engine nowadays and an impressive control panel with dials and switches and flashing lights. Unfortunately it's in a locked compartment so I wasn't able to play with it.

Uncle Les took a picture of the autocar for me so you can see what it looks like.

Me in the autocarWe went all the way from Embsay to a place called Bolton Abbey in the autocar and then came back again (I s'pose the clue's in the name of the railway!). When we got to Bolton Abbey, we stood up, pulled the seat back back (snigger) and sat down facing the other way.

It was all very interesting and we saw lots of sheep, a hare, and a man flying a drone which was filming our journey (so I waved to make sure he saw me). Someone said they saw an owl, but I was looking out the other window at the time and didn't see it.

You can find out lots more about the autocar, steam trains, timetables and other stuff on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway website.

Statue of Fred Truman, cricketer...and as if all that's not exciting enough - here's a picture of me in Skipton (near where we were staying) sitting on some cricketer chappie's statue (if you click on it you get to see a bigger version). I did want to sit on his head 'cos I thought it would look much more fun in the photo but it was all damp from the rain, and also a bit pigeony.

[The statue is of Fred Trueman, the Yorkshire and England fast bowler, who lived in Skipton for many years. The statue is sited next to the canal basin and was unveiled in 2010, Big Ted].

 

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