Don’t ever say you don’t get variety here. The day after pubs returned, the retiredmartin family did Coveney.
I have no idea why I picked Coveney, a village of 424 sprawling between Ely and the Wash.
Oh, yes I do. Dortmund Annie mentioned she’d been riding diggers out there.
Anywhere you go in the Fens, you’ve a view of Ely Cathedral. Here’s a beauty by hipster Saimon from our very village, about 10 miles south.
My own Huawei, no doubt shortly to be confiscated by the Govt. in a modern McCarthyesque clampdown, can’t match that shot but I did capture some random cows on Great Dam Fen on our 90 minute walk (Mr RM : 64 minutes).
We started on the “hill” in Coveney. The world clearly, was our oyster.
“Oooh, never been to Way Head (with good reason)” I said.
Mrs RM and James strode off with my instruction to “find something blogworthy” ringing in their ears, walking straight past the apple tree,
thatched houses,
and Grade I listed Church of Peter ad Vincula. I think they’re scared of Latin.
I caught them up on the road to Way Head, basically a farm, where a long family discussion about where we should move to was in progress. It continued the length of Old Lynn Drove. I don’t know why Old Lynn drove when pack horses were available.
James suggested we were the first visitors for decades, which my be true. There’s a limited tourist market for dirt, tracks, lone trees, and those dredging machines that collect the sludge for craft beer.
We arrived at Wardy Hill, having decided to move to Preston Stockport Ordsall Glossop Halifax New Mills.
We won’t be moving to Wardy Hill, a hamlet seemingly comprised of large wooden boxes and potatoes, despite the rave review on Wiki.
The Isle Villages signs, last noted in Little Downham of “irritate BRAPA” fame, suggested we’d walked past an Iron Age fort near the play area in Wardy Hill, a bit like visiting Maidenhead and forgetting to go in the Cons Club.
A totally unsatisfactory walk. But don’t take my word for it. Visit yourself.
No pubs for miles, of course;
Swan’s Stores might just be a micro by then.
We needed a beer.
New Mills. I can get you a good deal on a place in Little Hayfield.
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That looks much nicer than the better known Coventry.
The variety might be Scrumptious.
Why do so many churches but so few pubs get Grade I listing ?
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If you want to stay off the government’s radar, try swapping your Huawei phone for a Xiaomi. Same excellent quality, but no midnight knock on the door!
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What’s wrong with a midnight knock on the door. Unless you’re guilty. Eh, eh ?
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Lovely scenery.
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If you think so, Morten 🤔
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Isn’t that red machine from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb63PdPweDc ?
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Very beautiful area. So simplistic yet riveting it seems
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I did laugh at “Coveney sign rather overplays its hill, I feel”. You’ve got me thinking these village sign sculptors have a rather loose code: “Never mind if it’s true to the actual village, you’ve got to do whatever it takes to sell the place!”
At the risk of going on too much about the thatch, I must say a lot of these houses have thatched roofs that are so carefully and ornately sculpted, it makes me think such rooftops were the reserve of the well-to-do. Or even possibly something of more recent invention? I can’t imagine humble farmers in the 18th century making it a priority to have their thatched roofs carved into such elaborate shapes. (But what do I know?)
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I agree, Mark, the thatch is nicely done. Thatching and plastering seems a boom industry in many villages, but I wouldn’t have said these Fen places are at all rich.
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You know you’re going to end up in Maidenhead, don’t you?
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