Saturday, July 25, 2015

Hens and derelict cottages




" back garden awaiting its small flock!" 

To quote myself, who should turn up in the graveyard but two brown hens last night, out for a spree like 'Hetty and Harriet' above, one of my favourite children's story, along with the 'Church Mice' series by Graham Oakley.
Well they did not enter my newly acquired run and hutch, in fact it is the sparrows who fly in and out are more intrigued by this new addition to the garden.
LS was worried  and chased the hens round the yew trees to no avail but they have survived the night, and pottering around quite happily, perhaps we should make enquiries as to owners, or everyone visiting the church yard will think they have escaped from our run!


Yesterday Jean and her husband came round to fix the curtain railings, and over coffee told us, well not an intriguing story, rather sad really, but fascinating.  On the other side of the church are two new houses, they were occupied almost the same time as we occupied ours.  Apparently two years ago an old cottage was on this site, with a lady called Margaret living in it, she was rather old at 96, and over the years the cottage fell into total disrepair, the ceilings fell in, the bathroom fell down and also the kitchen just collapsed, and like a fairy tale the garden grew up around it.  She moved out into a caravan into the garden and even though she owned a bungalow, would always come back to the house to sleep at night.  As you can see I took the photo of the cottage off my computer screen from Google Earth.  I should really take the area to the right of the screen, it must have been a big garden, for both houses sit comfortably in large plots. And do some work on its history.

Another interesting thing Don told us, is that this village was the thoroughfare for the gypsies in the 'olden days'. presumably to Pickering, anyway the village had the reputation of being full of ale houses and brothels. Well blow me down with a feather, it is very humdrum at the moment, though I believe the fish and chip van comes through once a week!


2 comments:

  1. These Yorkshire fish and chip vans have a reputation for jolly good fish and chips - try it sometime.

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  2. I was a bit wary to be honest, hygiene and all that, but haven't seen him yet, we seem to be having a pony and cart rally round here at the moment, they come past the house every now and then...

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