THERE was a frosty shock for the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1986, when his car slid off the road near Painswick Beacon and stopped above a 30 foot drop.

The limousine carrying Dr Robert Runcie back to Gloucester after a meal in Painswick slid off the road by Painswick Beacon in icy conditions.

In snow and sub-zero temperatures, passers-by tried to push and pull the car back on the road.

But after trying for more than half-an-hour, the Archbishop travelled into Gloucester in the Bishop of Gloucester’s car.

“I knew something was wrong when I saw car lights shining up the bank as I was coming towards Painswick,” said Steve Pitman, a scaffolding salesman who was first on the scene.

“Two wheels had gone off the road – if the car had gone right off it would have crashed down 30 feet or more into a wall and trees.”

Mr Pitman, from Lightpill, was helping to push the car back on the road when someone spoke to the man next to him and called him Bishop.

“Then I saw his dog collar and asked if he was really a Bishop,” said Mr Pitman.

“He told me he was the Bishop of Gloucester – and that I had just missed the Archbishop of Canterbury. I was amazed.”

Dr Runcie and a party of other distinguished churchmen, had been in Painswick for a meal ahead of the consecration of the Bishop of Taunton and Tewkesbury in Gloucester Cathedral.

The Rev Jennings was in the Bishop of Gloucester’s car, leading the Archbishop’s chauffeur to Gloucester when the crash happened.

“We lost the Archbishop’s car behind us and went back to find it skidded off the road,” he said.

“We tried to manhandle it back on but failed.

“The Archbishop went on into Gloucester and stopped at Barton Street police station to ask for a four-wheel drive vehicle to go to pull his car out.

“It was amusing because the policeman at the desk asked if he had been drinking.”