Cider with Rosie country
We recently had a little holiday on the Somerset coast but, with me navigating, we took a detour to the Cotswolds to visit a very special village – Slad, the setting of Laurie Lee’s wonderful book Cider with Rosie. It was tricky to find the village, but we knew we were getting close when we saw the sign at Bulls Cross – ‘that ragged wildness of wind-bent turves … a sort of island of nothing set high above the crowded valleys’ – the place Lee and his friends would frequent in the hopes of seeing a ghostly spectre.
Arriving at the village, we quickly spotted the school where the fabulously named Spadge Hopkins was taught alongside the young Laurie Lee. Lee describes him as ‘thick-legged, red-fisted, bursting with flesh, designed for the great outdoors … the sight of him squeezed into his tiny desk was worse than a bullock in ballet-shoes.’
We spotted the house Lee bought with the proceeds of the book, nice and handy for The Woolpack pub and with glorious views over his beloved valley, and how lucky we were to see it in all its summer glory with ‘all sights twice-brilliant and smells twice-sharp’.Being a writer who has stuffed many an envelope with a fat manuscript in her time, I couldn’t help wondering if Laurie Lee had ever posted any of his work in the letterbox near the pub and did he ever realise how many people would fall in love with his valley through his words?His grave in on a hill by the church and simply says, ‘He lies in the valley he loved.’Our journey then took us to Painswick which gets several mentions in Cider with Rosie. I wanted to visit the extraordinary churchyard which is famous for its ninety-nine yew trees and its beautiful table-top graves.
It was then on to our destination – Woodspring Priory on the Somerset coast, passing the pier at Weston super Mare – where Lee and his family and neighbours enjoyed a day out. He writes, ‘We saw a vast blue sky and an infinity of mud … rousing smells of an invisible ocean astonished our land-locked nostrils: salt, and wet weeds, and fishy oozes; a sharp difference in every breath … we had never seen such openness, the blue windy world seemed to have blown quite flat, bringing the sky to the level of our eyebrows.’
I love visiting the places which my favourite writers have written about so this was a very special journey for me and one I hope to repeat again.
This is lovely, Victoria, and I feel like I was there with you. I’ll look forward to reading about your future adventures!
What a lovely tribute to a writer and a book. I would love to take that same journey. Thank you for posting this.
Having recently returned from Spain to live back in my Birthplace of Gloucester I loved reading your description of your visit to Laurie Lees beloved Slad and the quotes from his marvellous classic. Its one of my favourite villages to wander round and remember his stories of growing up there. Such a simple grave but the words engraved on it say it all.loved that you added the Weston Super Made bit. Recently went there too to reminisce old memories and loved that you added Laurie’s own description. My daughter Kelley lives in the USA now but having been brought up in the Cotswolds she has fallen in love with your books and they are a joy for her to read. She has introduced me to your work on FB, so I too shall have the pleasure if reading your books. Hope your rescued hens grow more feathers soon, it was a delight to read about them too. Thank you Victoria.
Thank you I felt like I was there! ;]
I agree with the above lovely tribute and look forward to taking that journey again one fine day..
Thanks so much for your cheerful out look on life and reminding me what a beautiful place we live in.
God bless.