Rodber Reunited

Sat 14th March ‘26. DH, DL, JS, Ralph & Albus

The forecast today was not as bad as last week but at least it was looking dry as we opted for a local route for a change. We started mid week with five of us but a couple of drop outs left just the three of us oldies so I invited Ralph the opportunity to join us again, which he jumped at! John kindly picked up Deryck and Albus whilst Ralph had been dropped off by dad, and so by 0830 we were sat on the bench on the Deansley Way green waiting for everyone to arrive.

There was still some frost on the grass and car roofs as we set off down Common Road heading south out of town. Crossing the A303 we turned left into Snag Lane, a very first for John despite him walking many miles around town for his health and well-being. It was as we made our way towards the field that we were talking about our time in Wincanton and the penny dropped that although non of us are locals, we all lived on Rodber Close at the same time in the 1980s. It was not a bad starting point for all of us and was a nice quiet close in it’s day. The local dog walkers had obviously been down and gone by this time as there was no one walking around the perimeter as we made our way through the middle to the cattle grid. In the area between the grid and the farm the trees are now pretty substantial and I think Ralph couldn’t believe that I remember them being planted, only twenty years ago. At the farm we stopped to look at the remains of one of the propellers from ‘Old Faithful’, the American Flying Fortress which crashed on Snag Farm in 1944 on its return from Europe, having missed crashing onto the town. All nine crew on board we unfortunately killed and are remembered on the plaque on Bayford Hill which overlooks this area.

We continued through the farm and through a couple of very weak handmade wire mesh gates onto a lane heading up the hill. The initial part was very wet and muddy as a small water course crosses the track but as we pushed on up the hill it dried out nicely. The sun was now shining brightly against the blue skies and as we entered the shade of the large trees at the top of the track and turned back to look at our town, the light was shining on all the new properties in front of us, stretching a good two miles from east to west.