Despite it not being a public holiday, bigger crowds than on Carnival Day were out yesterday morning (24th May) to see the Olympic Torch passing through Ledbury on its first stop after spending the previous night in Gloucester:

However, the most impressive thing was the police presence -
I lost count of the number of motorcycles:-

Before the main entourage appeared, spectators were kept amused by a springy stilt walker:

Then there was a parade of sponsors' vehicles. It is interesting that only one sponsor in this parade was British (Lloyds Bank, now owned by all of us). Others were Samsung (whose vehicle incorporated a huge LED advertising screen on each side, accompanied by very loud muzak) and Coca-Cola (in a Coke bottle-shaped contraption). They were a bit parsimonious with their rather unhealthy product...

Here is the People's Retro Bus:

The closest Ledbury ever got to having a local runner (Stuart Woodburn, from Worcester) posed for photos with a torch.

Yes - there are several torches - each runner has one for their 300 metre stint at the end of which they stop and the next runner's torch is ignited at the handover. I suspect the gas cartridge only holds so much....

Then Stuart set off for his 300m run up The Homend - it was impossible to get a good view because each runner was surrounded by at least half a dozen officials just in case the crowd got too close.

The procession carried up The Homend and then down the Hereford Road to the New Mills roundabout, where all runners and staff were loaded into vehicles and bussed off to their next destination - Bartestree, then through Lugwardine into Hereford. The last runner in the Ledbury relay was the young lady from Brazil.

The itinerary after Hereford was Leominster, Ludlow, Kidderminster, Droitwich and Worcester, where they spent last night. This morning they set off for Malvern, and then to Ross-on-Wye. They then entered Wales for a five-day tour, starting at Monmouth, followed by Abergavenny. They will be hosted by Cardiff tonight.