Making the most of the sun..

Yesterday's walk was a five mile round trip to the nearby village of Salwarpe.  We are lucky to have loads of lovely churches in the area and Salwarpe is one of my favourites.  It was built in the 11th Century then 'restored' in the 13th Century.  Since then, it's largely been left alone.  It certainly didn't suffer a Victorian 're-working' during the 19th Century.

 

 

The interior is cool, dark and very simple.  There are hints of medieval wall paintings on some of the plaster but it's far too dark to make out what the images might be..

 

Across the road there are two cottages.  These were built as a Grammar School in the early 1600s.  A small plaque on the building tells a little of its history.  We were surprised to read the school even accepted girls from 1730.  I had no idea that girls could receive a grammar school education at that time.

 

 

There's a small gate in a corner of the churchyard that takes you down to the Droitwich Canal.  It's a short stretch of canal that links Droitwich with the River Severn and was one of the first canals in the area.  It's unusually wide because the salt barges were wider than normal narrow boats.

 

Here's this week's 'green cathedral'....

 

The canal was derelict and unusable until very recently.  It's still quite a quiet stretch of water but it's lovely to see the occasional holiday maker picking their way through the reeds.

 

After a while we left the tow path and picked up this old lane to climb into the back of my village.  I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the patterns that the sunlight made on the stone wall...

 

Sadly my village isn't quite so picturesque.  There are a few old black and white cottages but the centre is largely Victorian and grew up round the (closed by Beeching) station.  I live in one of the many little modern developments in a 1990s house.  I just dream about having enough money to live in Salwarpe!

 

We managed another five mile walk this morning before the rain came.  We walked in the opposite direction, next to the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, so the scenary was generally more urban.  I'm pleased that we're keeping up the 'walking habit'.  The total exercise for the last week has been about 13 miles (two long walks and two short ones) so we're somewhere near our weekly target.

 

Unfortunately some of the possible benefits of this morning's walk were somewhat compromised by a piece of chocolate cake at coffee time.  I DID share it with Mark however (and everyone knows that husbands get all the calories if they eat off the same plate!!!)