Bike Route: none
Walking Route: All the way to the bottom of the village and back, maybe a quarter of a mile
Accommodation: Cosy Cottage (Airbnb); host Ashley
Lunch: The Olive Tree farm shop and cafe. Soup, sandwich, and salads.
Dinner: Garden of our cottage
We did nothing all day. Oh, we did walk to the bottom of the village for lunch and groceries. Washed a couple loads of clothes. Took a nap, maybe two naps. Thought about biking to a blue stone mine a few miles away, decided not to. Went to bed early.
This little village (maybe 20 cottages, a church, a village hall, and the farm shop) is so quiet. The views go on forever, peaceful rolling fields of sheep, grass, trees. A handful of sheep graze the small hillside pasture behind our garden, so close we can touch them at times.
We read a brief history of the cottage in our host's handbook. It has been in her family for over 200 years. The cottages were built by miners on land granted to them if they could build a dwelling in one day. Originally, all the cottages were just one room downstairs, one upstairs--very small and rough. Later, as they had time, most of the miners added on in front. Our cottage had been expanded to two rooms up and two down, and updated more recently to open up the kitchen and living area downstairs and add a bathroom upstairs. It was easy to tell the old parts from the newer.
The town's name comes from the type of stone mined nearby (fluorspar), the line of cottages (row), and the mine (pit): Sparrowpit.
On our way down to the farm shop/cafe for lunch, we waved to a young woman reading in the sun in her front garden. We passed an older woman and two little kiddos coming out of the church / village hall with papers and biscuits.
At the farm shop, the owner urged us to pick any table (they were all empty), and we chose one away from an open window where the only other diner was smoking outside. We recognized him as our neighbor with the silver car.
The owner took our order and served our food awkwardly, with a scruffy cast on his left wrist slowing him down. The cast would come off the next day, he said, and he was anxious to find out whether the wrist had healed properly or he needed surgery and resetting.
We bought a meat pie, a veggie roll, cheese, crackers, and cakes for dinner in the cottage.
A nothing day, but such a sweet slice of quiet village life.
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| The Olive Tree farm shop and cafe at the bottom of the village, from outside our cottage near the top of the village. |
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| The field and farm across the road from our cottage. |
