Open Day at Old St Mary's Church, Stoke Mandeville, The Archaeological Dig for HS2

The photo above shows the the state of the ruins of the Old St Mary's Church in Stoke Mandeville.

The church was built in the 12th century and abandoned in the 19th when the new church was built.  It was destroyed in the 1960s as it was no longer safe, the ruins and old graves stones are open to the public.  The site was de-consecrated in 1993.

Unfortunately, the route of HS2 will go through the middle of the site. HS2 archaeological teams are currently working on clearing the site and researching the remains that are being exhumed. Once the work has finished the remains will be reburied in the Stoke Mandeville parish, the exact location has yet to be agreed.

The photo below is a representation of how the church originally looked. 

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Archaeological Open Day that happens on some weekends so the public can see the excavations. The photo below shows the work underway. There are apparently 3000 burials there.

The exhibition of finds was interesting and the viewing platform was excellent. It was all very impressive. This is the exterior view of the massive temporary structure required to allow the work to progress in the very best way.  

There are videos on YouTube such as the one below.

The Longest Wait for a 250th parkrun

 

When I marshalled on the day that Alison ran her 250th parkrun, the 14th March 2020, little did I know that I would have to wait sixteen months to run mine. That day was the last event before lockdown and I had a 10K at Milton Keynes the following day. So my last parkrun had been on 7th March 2020. On the 18th March I posted "Stuck on 249".

So Saturday was a momentous day at Aylesbury parkrun where I had run over 200 of my 250. My first parkrun was at Black Park on the 3rd March 2012, so it has taken over nine years to reach this milestone, give or take a pandemic. But what made it special was meeting up with lots of people I had not seen for such a long time. I found this summary of my runs on the parkrun website.

David ROBERTS (250 parkruns)

Most Recent Runs

Event	Run Date	Gender Pos	Overall Position	Time	Age Grade
Aylesbury parkrun	24/07/2021	78	97	29:04	66.34%
Wendover Woods parkrun	07/03/2020	58	92	33:02	57.37%
Wendover Woods parkrun	29/02/2020	52	75	32:42	57.95%
Aylesbury parkrun	08/02/2020	70	96	30:37	61.89%
Wendover Woods parkrun	01/02/2020	87	137	32:58	57.48%
Aylesbury parkrun	25/01/2020	87	110	32:05	59.06%
Wendover Woods parkrun	11/01/2020	92	130	36:20	52.16%
Aylesbury parkrun	04/01/2020	96	146	36:22	52.11%
Aylesbury parkrun	05/10/2019	94	121	28:02	66.47%
Aylesbury parkrun	28/09/2019	112	136	27:29	67.80%

Event Summaries

Event	Runs	Best Gender Position	Best Position Overall	Best Time
Aylesbury parkrun	208	21	23	00:25:46	All
Wendover Woods parkrun	9	46	64	00:29:56	All
Milton Keynes parkrun	9	103	115	00:26:28	All
Wycombe Rye parkrun	9	35	41	00:27:04	All
Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge	3	51	79	00:28:35	All
Lanhydrock parkrun	3	32	51	00:32:18	All
Black Park parkrun	2	156	204	00:28:53	All
Tring parkrun	1	94	130	00:34:07	All
Druridge Bay parkrun	1	101	125	00:27:56	All
Bakewell parkrun	1	82	121	00:27:41	All
Lyme Park parkrun	1	71	96	00:34:20	All
Marple parkrun	1	96	130	00:28:18	All
Stretford parkrun	1	135	179	00:26:30	All
Tamar Lakes parkrun	1	29	34	00:27:31	All
	250	21	23	00:25:46	All

Volunteer Summary

Year	Role	Number of Times
2020	Marshal	2
2020	Token Sorting	1
2019	Barcode Scanning	2
2019	Finish Tokens	2
2019	Marshal	6
2019	Token Sorting	1
2018	Finish Tokens	1
2018	Marshal	3
2018	Pre-event Setup	1
2017	Barcode Scanning	2
2017	Marshal	2
2016	Barcode Scanning	4
2016	Marshal	2
2015	Backup Timer	1
2015	Barcode Scanning	1
2015	Finish Tokens	3
2015	Marshal	3
2015	Pacer (5k only)	1
2014	Barcode Scanning	1
2014	Finish Tokens	1
2014	Marshal	1
2013	Barcode Scanning	1
2013	Marshal	1

I actually ran in my volunteer t shirt as the photo below. I wasn't on my own the whole way round. I was pleased with the result of 29 minutes and 4 seconds. There were 178 runners, far less than I expected on the first run back. I had the 19th best Age Grade (over 66%) which was the most pleasing part.