Easter 1962

A Memory of Cerne Abbas.

I was one of 14 cyclists from Sussex who descended upon Cerne Abbas on Good Friday 1962, staying until Easter Monday.  We literally descended, as the route we used was to come over the hill from Piddletrenthide swooping down the narrow lane into the village.  We had left Sussex that Friday morning at about 7am and arrived in Cerne at about 7pm.  We were 8 blokes and 6 girls and we were booked in at the Old Cerne Union workhouse, then doing bed and breakfast, now in 2007 a rest home.  Torrential rain on the Saturday didn't stop us visiting Weymouth but on Sunday, when we went to Sherborne and Sturminster Newton the sun came out to allow us to don shorts for the first time that year.  But the real enjoyment came from the two evenings spent in Cerne, especially Saturday night at The Royal Oak.  In 1962 the pub bar area was much smaller than today, but we crowded in there, drinking the pub dry of draught Taunton Cider and eating them out of pickled eggs.  We had a great party with sing songs, jokes and laughter.  As the evening went on the pub seemed to become busier and busier, the bar fuller and fuller.  I remember one of our number asking the landlord if his pub was always this busy on a Saturday night.  "Nah, they's cumin' in yere to see you lot".

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