Membury Services M4

Wing walker above the Membury Services in West Berkshire.

Yesterday, Saturday 25th June, Marilyn, Alice, Abigail and myself drove west along the M4 across England to Wales.We needed to go to Newport where Alice is at university doing fashion design. She is very good. I know, that's her dad talking!!!!!

Alice is moving out of her halls of residence this year and moving to a small Victorian terraced house in Newport with three friends for next year. She needed help in moving. Her mum, dad and youngest sister were roped in to help.

The M4 is an iconic motorway slicing across England from London, in a virtually straight line, over the Severn Estuary Bridge and into South Wales and it keeps going as far as Camarthen in the western tip of Wales. It is a 300 mile cross section of the country.

I must admit at my age, I need motorway stops,often, to use the loo and dose up on strong coffee, to keep me going.

It was a lovely day yesterday and our first stop was at the Membury Service Station in West Berkshire, the beginning of the Cotswolds, about 80 miles west of London. It is situated amongst a miriad of villages and historic sites. The White Horse at Uffington is just north of it. Straight Soley, Chilton Foliat, Whittonditch, Crooked Soley, Great Shefford, Froxfield, Ramsbury and Knighton are all villages nearby. As we parked, there was a roar overhead. We looked up and caught sight of a yellow biplane zooming past, low above us with a,"wing walker," standing erect, arms out in cruciform style atop the uppermost wing. The plane and man swooped, circled, climbed and dived around a circular course, all about us. I whipped out my camera and took as many pictures as I could.

All the best.