FOR a new vicar in the Cotswolds, life has always been an adventure.

Rev Arthur Champion once accompanied astronaut Neil Armstrong into a remote cave in the Amazon jungle.

And the previous year, 1975, he was part of an Anglo-American team which broke the world depth record at a cave in the French Pyrenees, descending to a depth of 1,130 metres and camping there for three nights.

“Neil Armstrong was a very quiet, unassuming person,” said Mr Champion.

“I had to make sure he was attached to the safety rope to drop down into a cave. I just thought, if I do the knot wrong then he’ll drop 150 feet to his death. I would have killed the world’s most famous man! So I got someone else to check it too.”

Now the keen caver, 63, has taken on a fresh challenge as vicar of the Churn Valley parish.

Covering the villages of Coberley, Cowley, Colesbourne and Elkstone, this is his first full ministerial placement, having previously spent 30 years as global health and safety manager for Zurich insurance group.

Mr Champion took up his post on January 18 but is not new to the church.

For many years he was on the leadership team at Glenfall Church in Cheltenham and was ordained in 2008. Since then he has served in various positions in the Greenway Benefice, followed by a year at Bourton-on-the-Water as diocesan environmental advisor.

Mr Champion moved into the Cowley Rectory with his wife Margaret just before Christmas and is enjoying his time in the parish so far.

He said: “Everyone has been so welcoming and there is a great sense of wanting the churches in the parish to thrive and flourish.”

He has a daughter, Ellie, 29, a son, Rob, 32, and a grandson, Joel, who is two-and-a-half.