COME INTO THE GARDEN MAUDE

I have been busy over the last couple of weeks, sorting out maps, photographs, and writings about my village and its environs. This is because a week tomorrow, my Local History Group is having a drop in event at the local community hall. People can either bring any documents etc they would like to show us or just come and have a look at the display boards to see what we have found out so far. It's free and you get a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits, so we are hoping it will be a success. This gave me the idea that it would be nice to share with you some of the old photographs I have found and tell you all about them.

The first photograph above, is my very favourite, it is taken in the next village to us about 2miles away. The road leads down to the river and there used to be a ferry there that would take you across the river. What fascinates me about this photograph is the lady standing outside her rather impressive ivy covered house. She is wearing an amazingly large crinoline, and has obviously just come out to see what is going on, another member of the household leans out of an upstairs window to watch the photographer. I love the fact it is not a posed family photograph but just someone standing in the type of clothing they wore everyday. The photo just has 1870 on it. I am not sure if this is correct due to the size of the crinoline. I think it is either slightly earlier or prehaps, fashions took a long time to reach our neck of the woods.



This photograph shows the same view, except it is further down the road, and we have moved into Edwardian times. The river and the woods of this village, Wetheral, were a Sunday or day off destination for people in this area. You could walk in the woods or take a picnic by the side of the river. Children would be taken there with their pace eggs at Easter for a treat. It was also a popular spot with the middle classes and their Botanical Societies etc, searching for plant specimens in the woods.



This is the other end of that village, note the unmade road, today this is a busy tarmac road. It looks so idyllic with all the hedges and bushes, you could wander down that road in quite a daydream, not likely to be able to do that with the cars that go hurtling through today.



This is the Wheatsheaf Inn, it is at the top left on the previous photograph, just before the road bends, hidden by greenery. This is also an Edwardian photograph. The Wheatsheaf is still there today, though that is now a busy traffic bend in the road. I love the staff standing outside the door and the man on horseback watching the photo being taken. I wonder who he is?



This engraving is from 1837 showing the large railway bridge over the river. What a wonderful feat of engineering. The Victorians certainly could build. The railway station at Wetheral is still open and trains do stop there. I love crossing this river in a train, on a return journey, to me it is always a sign that I am nearly home. You can walk across the railway bridge, there is a fenced off pathway along side the railway track and this leads you into the village of Great Corby. This is where years ago the ferry from Wetheral used to take you across to.



This tinted photograph is of the next village after Wetheral, Heads Nook. These are Railway Villas, someone did tell me that they used to belong to the railway and managers and clerical workers from the railway lived in them. They are very substantially built properties. Alas, the railway station at Heads Nook is no longer open.



Yesterday and today, I have had a stream of small white boxes containing my summer bedding plants through the post. It is total chaos, I am finding it hard to understand why these boxes are coming through individually when I put one order in. Yes, I understand they send the plants off when ready, but it looks like a certain amount of them must have been ready at the same time, why not put them in one container. There are nicely and safely packaged, one problem, though. The small perennials little plastic homes are labelled with names of plants inside but the trays of 66 plug plants give no indication of variety! hummm! Well some I could recognise by leaf, although they are still small plants, I could see which were going to be geraniums and which were petunias but one or two at the moment it's anybodies guess what they will become.

It is still slightly early to plant outside, although the days are warm, we are still experiencing ground frost at night occasionally. So, my day has been spent sitting in the kitchen potting on, goodness knows how many small plants, I lost count. Suffice to say that every windowsill in the cottage has been taken over by trays of young plants. Never mind that will give them a good start and they can go outside at the end of the month. It's certainly kept me busy today, but I got them all potted on, mainly because I know there is still a batch of them to arrive. Fortitious as well that they came just as the moon began to wax again.