Where the Wild Things Were

We started our walk listening to tales of collecting geese eggs for pocket money on the old reservoir and looking at old photographs of the shale tips from the ironstone mines.  Kenny recounted stories of playing on the shaleys and riding down them on old car bonnets.  We  walked down to the site of the old ironstone mine and  listened to memories of playing in the old mine buildings and the dangerous games played at the top of the shafts before walking along to the railway viaduct and looking at the views towards the coast.  Dropping down into the woods along very muddy paths we visited the site of the summer camp by the beck.  We listened to memories of childhoods by the stream  playing on tarzan swings or making swimming dumps.  Catapults were a big part of many childhoods so several of us tried our hand at hitting a target on a log which was huge fun.  We listened to stories of how children navigated the woods by the names of trees then crossed the river to visit the Big Oak and used a check list to confirm it was indeed a Big Oak.  We returned up the side of the valley stopping to listen to memories of dormice, water voles and red squirrels that are no longer to be found in the area before returning to our cars happy but perhaps a little muddy!   Thanks to Audrey Cowdry Barnes for the photos!