Holystone

Backblip
To one of my favourite places, Rothbury.  My grandparents lived here and my mother and her two sisters were raised here.  A place where I have always felt at home.  

Liz met us in the car park by the river and we went to the Vale Milk Bar for coffee.  Liz frequented it in her teens, and in later years I stood outside holding ponies while my friend Viv went in to meet her boyfriend!  Lottie was made very welcome, provided she stayed on the floor, and was given biscuits by the owner.

We drove up to the village of Holystone and walked through the woods  to Lady's Well, chatting all the way.  Even though she is my aunt, there is only five years between us and we have always got on well together.  The well at Holystone is thought to date back to Roman times and was restored in the late 1700s.  It has been tidied up a lot since I last visited it over 40 years ago too; it used to have a layer of coins in the bottom, but they have all gone!  The statue is of St Ninian, a popular saint around these parts.  

The tiny church in Holystone, St Mary the Virgin,  is very simple and moving.  Stained glass window in extras.  These days it is used as a post office one afternoon a week.  So good that the local community have still got a church and a post office!

Lovely to see Liz, a really super day.  A shame we aren't able to see each other more often.  Said goodbye and we went up to Fontburn Reservoir to camp overnight for the princely sum of £10.  No electricity, no lights, just complete darkness apart from the stars and owls hooting in the distance.