Kidderminster and beyond....

So I should have put these pictures up last night of the rocky sandstone outcrops, these occur on the short run up from Stourport to Kidderminster.  I felt that we were boating in the Dordogne.

So the next morning we set off with the darling girls.  Mallory is from NZ and was filming a few bits to send to home Down Under on SnapChat....

Daughter on the right.

Mallory under careful supervision did sterling work  winding paddles and marvelling at the technology.

"Yep stick it on there and wind it up..."

Further on at Wolverley and the pub called The Bridge, a little surprised to see pints being drunk at about 11am....  I make no judgements.

Absolute Darlings.

This is the worst of the blind bends at the lower section on the Staffs to Worcester, I was driving and I was going uber slowly I can tell you.

This looks I badly cut the corner but really it wasn't.

David brought WaL into Debdale Lock, this is the one with the cave cut into the wall alongside the lock, its fascinating, but I am not sure that I go along with the idea of horses being kept in here overnight.....  Some dogs can't get over the lock gates let alone horses.

See what I artily did here?  See see?

In the afternoon, seeing as how the car was already, as if by magic, in Kinver, I suggested that a thrilling afternoon would be to go En Famille to the cave houses.  David instantly said he needed a nap, Verity didn't really answer but said ummmmmmmmmm.  So in the end Mallory and I went, she is toooo polite to say no.  But she did convince me that as a primary school teacher having taught her children about cave dwellers, it would be a first to actually go see some.

First Foxglove in bloom up near the Cave Houses.

First sight, so here you are looking at two houses and the well they shared.

Kitchen range kept the damp down.

 

A typical victorian kitchen of the time.

The other cave opened to the public is furnished in time of the 1930's

Rag rugs being made, and a recording of  an old lady playing, she talked of her own grandmother living here and the lives they led.

Cute little wood burner installed

The third level, and four cottages carved out and bricked to give a front.  See the view? 

At one time there were eleven houses, as familir=es increased in size they carved another room out of the rock.  The residents had vegetable gardens and kept animals here.  The last occupiers left in the 1960's!!!!!!

Great having the car for outings.  Supper was cold beef salad with sweet potato wedges, with almond and raspberry tart.