This is an enforced rest day, so we have no restocking or significant maintenance to do. After breakfast, we elect to explore the pretty little town of Horncastle before it really heats up.
In some ways, Horncastle is Lincolnshire’s flip side to Boston. It was originally a Roman settlement, hence the suffix -castle, but since then it has revelled in prosperous near obscurity. The pilgrim fathers and antipodean explorers did not embark from here. Nevertheless, Horncastle celebrates its history with informative local blue plaques dotted around the town. We would not have spotted the remains of a Roman wall at the base of a brick replacement without the plaque which identifies it.
We decide to visit the St Mary the Virgin parish church as it is prominent in the town and likely to be cool inside. It is what my Dad would have designated an architectural mess, but there is a self-guided tour leaflet available which describes the short, part-tower part-spire as like a candle snuffer. It is the oldest part of the church and clearly the town became wealthier after its construction and added a more impressive, if disproportionate, main body. For the record, the Ordnance Survey lists it as ‘church with tower’. The pamphlet also waxes lyrical about the ‘charmingly tilted’ columns; another casualty of late additions to the building deforming its structure.
Despite all of theses quirks, or maybe because of them, it is a very welcoming space, all the more so because it is cool. We make a donation and I light a candle for my sister Helen, something I do in every church I visit. I am an atheist, but I do it because I know she believed and being remembered was important to her; not that I am ever likely to forget.
We leave the church and arrive at the river via a roundabout route. Here, feral pigeons are pretending to be waterfowl, dipping into the water and standing with their feet immersed. It is no wonder they are so successful.
We go back to our hotel room for a refreshing shower and to do some more route planning, then head out to the blissfully air conditioned Costa Coffee for a late lunch. We’ll be up early again tomorrow to get on our way and back on track, thunderstorms or not.
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