Good weather yesterday so your intrepid reporter travelled east of here into Nottinghamshire for another delightful four hour walk in the countryside.
I unsaddled Clint by St Laurence's Church in Norwell and left him grazing there as I set off into the autumnal day. Just north of Newark the agricultural landscape rolls gently. Because there is little accessible stone in the area, old houses tend to be made from bricks and unlike Derbyshire and South Yorkshire there are no stone field boundary walls - just hedgerows.
However, ancient village churches were generally built from imported stone. That always makes me think about how challenging ecclesiastical construction projects must have been. We're not just talking about a few stones but countless tons for each church - long before any form of mechanised transport appeared. I understand that barges and rafts on waterways were vital to the transportation of stone.
And so I rambled - first to Bathley and then on to Caunton before heading back over the fields to Norwell and the completion of my circle. All three were delightful villages, tucked away in a hidden corner of England. Until Tuesday evening, I shall admit that had never heard of one of them, yet there they were all the time. Lives were being lived there, fields were being tilled. Seasons came and went in an endless chain. Year after year.
It's lovely to discover hidden treasures (relatively) on our doorstep. I have done more exploring locally since CV and been surprised. SOME good things have come of it.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much wonder out there Charlotte.
DeleteLove the bus shelter book swap complete with hanging baskets.
ReplyDeleteThat is a much loved bus shelter and testament to a village where anti-social behaviour is almost unthinkable.
DeleteLike northsider, I love the bus shelter book swap, too.
ReplyDeleteThe grassy path heading back to Norwell looks like my kind of walk. Well, many types of paths are my kind of walk, actually, but I do have a thing for grassy ones.
The sky on the first picture provides a wonderfully dramatic backdrop.
Grassy paths are better for falling down on.
DeleteI too, love the photo of the bus shelter - it shows real sense of civic pride. Can you imagine how long it would remain so pristine in any big town or city anywhere?
ReplyDeleteThe first photo is truly prize-worthy - the sky is so threatening. As usual YP, all your photos are a pleasure to look at.
I m pleased you enjoyed this post CG. Thanks for your kind support.
DeleteIt is interesting that commmunities used to spend enormous amounts on their churches. Also that the size of a church gives an indication of how wealthy a community once was, despite how it is now. I think particularly of Holderness - Hedon for example.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Holderness. There's another marvellous parish church at Patrington.
DeleteThat bus shelter is to die for. It's home. Bring on the rain. No need for the unlikely event of the bus being on time.
ReplyDeleteBeing a mother hen type, it's your Mama Duck and ducklings which touch my heart. I am sure I've told you about the frog-crossing road sign close to York where my in-laws lived. So I won't repeat myself as entertaining as the story is. In a gruesome type of way.
U
Henceforth the mother duck in the sign will be known as Ursula. And as they say in Nottinghamshire - "What's up duck?"
DeleteLookslike you are having a good time in Spring with food walks and lovely sceneries. The cottage is so quaint with the red bricks, and Yes, the bus shelter with books. I can sit there and enjoy a nice picnic with the books of course
ReplyDeleteThanks Kestrel. By the way, we are not "in Spring" - we are in Autumn!
DeleteNot if you live down under YP!
DeleteThat is an extraordinarily posh bus shelter. We have a glass pre-fab thing in our village (not that we get any buses!).
ReplyDeleteIf you had a decent bus shelter, buses might stop in Royston Vasey!
DeleteIt is heartening to know that there are still some places like these hidden away, unspoilt by modern day excesses.
ReplyDeleteIn Caunton there was a millennium photo of every villager on a church wall and it was interesting to note that they were all white English - every one.
DeleteI saw Norwell and thought Narwhale:)
ReplyDeleteThe photos are lovely and the villages look timeless.
Indeed there was a sense of timelessness.
DeleteFor some reason, Rose Cottage reminded me of "Little Women." I can just see the March sisters living there, reading their Pilgrim's Progress, thinking their deep thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. All of this.
I must admit that I have never read "Little Women" but I am pleased that you liked this post Ms Moon.
DeleteThat is some lovely photography YP. The street signs evoked some wanderlust in my heart. I'd love to hit the road.
ReplyDeleteCOVID-19 seems to be doing a good job of curtailing wanderlust.
DeleteI like that they included the church tower in the background on the duck sign!
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! I am glad that you spotted that detail Sir Steve!
DeleteYou are *the king of infinite space*, Sir Yorky!
ReplyDeleteAny one of us would be gladly *bounded* in the nutshell of that high-roofed house in Norwell. The attic window looks like a perfect book-room and study.
The Green Road is paradise. Who wouldn't wish to follow it, as Librarian says?
Mind you, that attic room could be where Uncle John from Scotland was locked up with every one of Enid Blyton's 762 books,
DeleteUncle John's first reading experience was Enid Blyton's *The Wishing Chair*: it led to a love of the English countryside and English poetry.
DeleteIf that attic room belonged to me I would have its shelves stacked with Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, R.L. Stevenson, Kipling, Walter De La Mare, Edward Thomas, Auden etc.
C.S. Lewis's brother Warnie used to laugh when children wrote letters to the famous author, saying they preferred Aslan the talking lion to Jesus. *You've got a bit of a problem there,* he'd tell his theological brother.
You always give an interesting background about the areas you walk through. I often wonder how much time and effort it took to build the churches.
ReplyDeleteNo tubular scaffolding and only hand tools. Amazing.
DeleteWhat a lovely little town you found to stroll through! I love all the brick homes and buildings and the duck sign is very sweet!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed those photos, capturing the quiet side of the country. There is something to be grateful for that we protect and cherish our heritage, not just through law but the individual staying the hand of modernisation.
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