CIDER WITH ROSIE
Cider with Rosie was a best selling 1959 book by Laurie Lee.
The novel is an account of Lee’s childhood in the village of Slad in the twenties. It chronicles the traditional village life which disappeared with the advent of new developments, such as the coming of the motor car, and relates the experiences of childhood seen from many years later.
Below- a photo I took of that very home he lived in taken some years ago (in 1977).
The house is still there but on this visit it was too dark to photograph at the time of day I was passing.
The house is still there but on this visit it was too dark to photograph at the time of day I was passing.
We stayed at a charming bed and breakfast (called Furners Farm) across the valley from Lee’s childhood home.
Below the view looking back at Lee’s house from the Furners Farm garden.
Below-Details around the house.
Below- Walking through Slad in the Cotwolds Hills which are quintessentially English.
These roads unfortunately have almost a constant stream of traffic these days.
Below-Bibury in Oxfordshire.
Above-Weavers Cottages.
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CLIFTON
Most of the friends I still have in England I know because we all knew each other in the late sixties in Clifton– which is a part of the larger city of Bristol in the west country. I have fond memories of living there. Below an iconic poster from the thirties when the Railway companies employed the best artists to sell the public on travel.
We accessed Clifton from the west via the iconic graceful suspension bridge built over the Avon by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1864.
Clifton (originally Cliff Town) is (and was) one of the oldest and most affluent areas of Bristol- much of it having been built with profits from tobacco and the slave trade. Hard to believe but ships sailed up this river (at high tide) from the early middle ages until the twentieth century.
Above– These gracefull crescents are still wonderful examples of urban architecture. The streets are void of traffic which is at a lower level. The pavement sits over the carriage houses (now garages) below. If I had to live in England again I would choose this town. It has all the grace of Bath but is not a museum piece existing only by tourism.
Above-Alleys and lanes criss-cross the hillsides. Some streets have no vehicle access.
Above– The Polygon built for retired Admirals by the navy in the seventeen hundreds. Then run down in the post war period and later where hippies lived in the sixties. Now very desirable residences again.
Below charming streets in Clifton village.
Below-Bristol-based Aardman Animations created the Wallace and Gromit films. This is a sculpture in a Clifton park.
Below- a four storied decorated wall with all the plumbing pipes outside because the new indoor plumbing was added much later than when these were built.
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Should you be interested in more photographs of England taken by me
please see this book I published a few years ago of the best of ye olde slide images.
please see this book I published a few years ago of the best of ye olde slide images.
