First checkpoint down, and it’s fair to say things have not run as smoothly this year so far.
Two punctures to the same tyre delayed the team’s arrival at Un Coffee Roasterie, putting us roughly 40 minutes behind schedule.
No sooner had the team set off for the next stop, two more punctures struck!
Luckily they were easy enough to repair and the riders are back on the open road, hopefully with the worst firmly behind them!
Let’s take a look at where the team have just taken a pitstop…
Witney
I can’t lie to you, there isn’t a whole lot to say about Witney. I mean there are some churches, it’s a market town and has been since the middle ages.
Oh, incidentally it was in the middle ages that Whitney also became renowned for woollen blankets, the water to make them drawn from the Windrush river, which many believed was the key to their quality.
The blanket makers also used to make mops, and at one point every ship in the Royal Navy had a Witney mop on board. That’s fairly interesting I suppose.
This tale has a sad end though, as in 2002 the biggest producer of Witney blankets closed it’s doors, and the production of woollen blankets completely ceased in the town, with the factory being demolished and replaced with a housing estate.
Rundown Rail
Sadly this seems to be a trend for the town, as Witney Railway which opened in 1841 was completely closed and dismantled by British Rail in 1970..
There may be hope for the defunct line yet though, as in 2021 the Witney Oxford Transport Group submitted a bid to the ‘Restoring your Railways’ fund, so there’s hope yet.
Oops, almost forgot. Is it in the Doomsday book? Of course it is.
Big Names
Famous names from Witney are also a bit thin on the ground, but the biggest name associated with the town is obviously former PM David Cameron, as it was his constituency.
For me though Robert Llewellyn is the stand out Witney hometown hero. Not only for his stellar work on Scrapheap Challenge, but as Kryten in Red Dwarf!
Samaritans in Oxford
The nearest branch of Samaritans is Oxford, which opened in 1963 and has around 170 volunteers who take roughly 2500 calls and 1000 emails a month.
Here’s what one of the callers had to say…
“To tell someone my story who was a stranger was so much easier than telling family or friends. I felt I couldn’t tell the people close to me everything in case it hurt them to hear the truth. With Samaritans, I could finally open up. I came off that call and thought, ‘I know what to do now’. I contacted a local therapist and began working through the issues that had held me back for years. Today, I’m in a better place than ever”.
– Simon
Next Stop… Haddenham
We’re currently winging our way down the A40 to Haddenham, which was Andy and Damien’s hometown.
I’ll be back with more then!