The Lunar Excursion Module in Chettle

The Lunar Excursion Module in Chettle Village, Dorset

I finished my solo guided backpack walk with https://foottrails.co.uk/ at the renowned Casteman Hotel in Chettle in 2013.

Chettle sits off the A354, and I saw it as the prettiest of charming English country villages. It came complete with duck pond, villager-run general store, and farm. Later on, I learned of the now famous annual Chettle Village Fête. I had a memorable time there one summer afternoon. SEE https://chettlefete.co.uk/

I set about taking snaps of one of the thatched cottages with its classic flower garden in full summer sunshine.

I greeted a retired gentleman of noble bearing, who walked out of the front door. We fell into conversation.

It turns out that, at that period, the whole of Chettle village, plus surrounding farms and lands, “belonged”, in a somewhat Feudal English way, to his wife.

Today some of these lands have been sold off, so their ownership is more fragmented. That man and I got on because we shared some experiences in common as teenagers in the 1960s in Geneva.

Then he told me this.

Earlier that year, he was in the little historic Knightsbridge pub, The Grenadier, near Hyde Park Corner, London. https://g.co/kgs/2AzF6Vz

He fell into conversation with an American tourist. This man said he works with NASA on the Moon landing craft. They manufactured two identical Moon Rovers, to be able to replicate and solve possible problems with the one on the Moon surface in real time.

He was in London to give a talk at the Science Museum, South Kensington, illustrated with the NASA Lunar Excursion Module entrusted to his care.

The man agreed to meet up as his guest at Chettle Village, which the American gent was curious to see as an example of typical Old England.

Some time passed, and he arrived together with a trailer, on top of which was the fully functional Lunar Excursion Module.

Picture these men with their broad smiles, taking turns driving along the single track Chettle Village main street at full throttle, which was around 20mph.