TOURISTS marking the start of the three-year 2012 Olympics count-down had grave reservations about the Open Weekend. They came to look round the 700-year-old Bow Church and find the grave of the first Governor of the American colony of Carolina

By Ben Miller

TOURISTS marking the start of the three-year 2012 Olympics count-down had grave reservations about the Open Weekend.

They came to look round the 700-year-old Bow Church in the middle of Bow Road which forms the Olympic Highway’ out to Stratford and find the grave of the first Governor of the American colony of Carolina.

Philip Ludwell, who buried was at Bow Church in 1716, emigrated to the colonies in 1660 before being appointed first Governor of the original Carolina Province, but returned to England in mysterious circumstances.

“Maybe there was something finer than to be in Carolina,” said St Mary’s Rector Michael Peet. “It brought him back to Bow and we’re trying to find out what it was.”

Trouble is, no-one is certain exactly which grave it is. Almost three centuries of grime and air pollution has worn away the inscriptions on most of the stone graves in the churchyard in the middle of the busy A11 Bow Road.