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ENGLAND 2000
Day 10
Cotherstone, Durham
to
Little Salkeld, Cumbria
Saturday
May 13, 2000
Since we have to be out of the cottage by 10 am, we were up early. The sun is out today which is always nice on a day when one must travel. We had our breakfast, finished our packing, cleaned up the entire cottage, and ourselves, and prepared for the second leg of our adventure - The Lakes!
All around the cottage there were pictures on the walls, all originals painted by various people including our landlord, Peter, and his family and friends. They were lovely little scenes of England, some of East Briscoe Farm Cottages...and they were all for sale! Some seemed old, and others not so old. Margaret, on the day she left us, bought a small one that was hanging in the wash room where Peter had quite a few of them for sale. It was our turn to chose one of them, and I found a lovely watercolour that was painted by Peter's Mom, it was a view of East Briscoe Farm Cottages. It was £36 and I thought it was worth every bob! Peter said it was his favourite one that his Mom had painted. It was all framed but it was just large enough to NOT fit into any of our suitcases! So Peter gave us some bubble-wrap and we decided to wrap it up good and take it as my "carry-on" piece of luggage on the plane coming home.
We said our fare-thee-wells to Peter and Ann, and drove down the long driveway out of East Briscoe Farm Cottages - very satisfied with a wonderful holiday here.
Before leaving Cotherstone I wanted to do one last thing. You may remember me telling you about Hannah Hauxwell - well, she now lives in a tiny cottage on the main road in Cotherstone and I wanted to get a photograph of Hannah's house before we left. It's the white cottage just to the left of center with the bay window. I didn't want to appear too "touristy" driving by and taking pictures, so I took this close-up of Hannah's front window as we drove through the town for the last time.
Goodbye Cotherstone - Lakes here we come!
We drove up into the North Pennines - across the very high moors over to Alston. At first I wanted to get out and walk around here, but the main road was a cobbled pavement and it sloped down very steeply, so I decided not to stop and on we drove west to our destination - Penrith.
We arrived in Penrith at around lunchtime, parked the car in a large car-park, and had a lovely stroll round this teeming city. I found another photo shop having a wonderful sale on film and got 8 more rolls. We found a phone box and made a call to our new landlady, Joyce Hebson, to get directions to the cottage which was about 5 miles outside of Penrith.
Mrs. Hebson is a lovely lady, and she gave directions that led through the little village of Langwathby, which has a station for the Settle to Carlisle Train - she recommended the cafe there for lunch but we found a nice little second floor cafe in Penrith and had a great fish and chips lunch there!
We were headed to Little Salkeld, but just to the west of Little Salkeld is Great Salkeld where St. Cuthbert's Church exists - a very ancient church.
Almost there, we drive through Langwathby, a beautiful tiny village, and I couldn't resist taking this photograph of what turned out to be my very favourite house in this area. Isn't it grand? I especially love the lawn-maintenance technique being employed here!
We got lost a couple of times, drove right past our cottage, then backtracked, and finally had to ask a resident for directions...but we at last arrived at Town End Farm Cottage. This is a real working farm - no frills, just plain decent hard-working Cumbrian folk here.
After meeting Joyce Hebson, we settled into our digs - here is Paul relaxing in the living room. And here's a shot of our dining area and kitchen. Mrs. Hebson was kind enough to leave a bottle of wine on the counter for us, but being the tea-totalers that we are, we had to leave it there for the guests who would come after us! But what a nice gesture on her part!
It was a very nice cottage with lots of room and three bedrooms to choose from -- one with a double bed, one with bunk beds and one with twin beds!
A view out the rear window at the second floor level revealed this lovely scene of the back garden area. I made friends right away with the two working farm dogs seen in this picture in the driveway at the corner of the building. They are called Rusty and Rodders and were very nice, though shy, dogs. It was really good to be around two dogs again, let me tell you! Here is Rodders, the least shy of the two, who came right over to me with tail a-waggin'.
The view from our bedroom window was just what I'd hoped for ... an up close and personal experience on a working beef and dairy farm! The cows were herded daily from their field down the tiny street in front of Town End Farm, and into the yard, which led into the large barn where they were milked by Peter and his son Martin Hebson.
After a long day on the road, we unpacked our things, turned on the telly, and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. We've really been very lucky in all the cottages we've found, they have all been very pleasant and enjoyable abodes...and Town End Farm Cottage is no exception ... it's perfectly lovely here! Can't wait to see what unfolds for us over the next 7 days!
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