Bus Challenge(-ish!) No 63!!

Only a very short bus ride today, to the nearby village of Saltford, for their annual week-long village festival. But I got to see and learn something new, so it still fits the aim of my Bus Challenges!

Before attending one of the festival's lunchtime talks, we popped into St Mary's Church, which dates back to Norman times, to have a look at the Flower Festival.

Following on from the Ironing Board Woodlice, and the Sparrow Hawk assassination, I thought I'd complete the macabre trio with a tale that I read in the church, relating to one of the memorials, not to a person, but to a woman's feet! If you're feeling squeamish, you might not wish to continue reading!!

"In 1723, Frances Flood was passing through Saltford when she became infected with the Smallpox. As she knew no-one in the village, and was denied lodging by the Overseer (village leader), she stayed in a barn.
Over the following months her condition worsened until eventually her feet and lower legs dropped off, due to gangrene. Miraculously, her legs healed within two hours, without help from a Physician or Surgeon. The memorial she left in the Church reads thus as follows:

Stop Reader, and a Wonder see
As strange as e'er was known,
My Feet drop'd off from my Body
In the Middle of the Bone:
I had no Surgeon for my Help,
But God Almighty's Aid,
In whom I ever will rely.
And never be afraid.
Tho' here beneath they lie
Corruption for to see;
Yet they shall one Day re-unite
To all Eternity."

And of course the challenge wouldn't have been complete without a glass of cider in the village pub to finish off!!

Bus journey time = 15 mins