Up along and down along..........II

As they say in Dorset; we came home via a circuitous route, ostensibly to try and get a photo of a National Trust property for the WI competition on Thursday. I don't expect to win, but thought it would be nice to support it and put an effort in. Our route took us through Cowgrove, a very ancient village on the Kingston lacey estate, just outside of Wimborne. The ancient atmosphere in that part of the world is palpable; it is little changed in hundreds of years apart from a few newwer houses up away from the road through. Very old duck pond and green, with the narrow road winding past it. The houses, farms and cottages are well -kept, as they are all NT properties. The one in the pictures is The Court House; I remember it being restored when we lived down that way - 11 years ago +, now. I remember the scaffolding enclosing it, the roof being restored and the hair and plaster going on - we went to have a look regularly to see how work was progressing. The thatched cottage beside it belongs to the dairy farm, the thatch coming down almost, but not quite , to ground level. A truly beautiful and unspoilt part of England, this; I would love to have seen it a couple of hundred years ago, but as I said, probably recognisable and little different to today.