Just over a week ago it was time to catch up with my Son the Younger and go for a walk in his neck of the woods, which is Lyde Green.We'd decided to visit two nearby disused collieries, Brandy Bottom and Parkfield, so set off along the old Dramway that connected them and other collieries to the north and south with the docks on the Avon.
Coppiced hazel
Approaching the chimney of Brandy Bottom Colliery and Old Pit
New Pit
Cornish Engine House
The two halves of a winding wheel on either side of the path just beyond the colliery have no connection with it. Apparently, they're from a colliery in Wales and were installed by Sustrans to mark where the Dramway crosses a Roman road; in fact, they're far bigger than the one that would have been in operation at Brandy Bottom.
We then doubled back and headed for Parkfield Colliery, of which little remains apart from the chimney, which can be seen in winter from the adjacent M4 ...
... and the former mining cottages, here seen from the rear.
We wandered back to Son the Younger's neck of the woods along the lane that turns to a river in winter, but which was merely muddy and puddled following the spell of dry March weather. At one point I nearly slipped and fell, but managed to regain my footing.
At the end of the lane I felt in my jacket pocket and realised my phone was missing. We retraced our steps up and down the lane for half an hour, as far as the point where I remembered taking a final photo, with Son the Younger ringing my phone in vain. No sign of it. In my head I rehearsed the various scenarios: the having to get a new phone when I still have two years to pay on my lost new one; the trip to Vodaphone in Cribbs Causeway, where there would be a long wait for help; the sheer bloody inconvenience and expense of it all. Then, advancing on the puddle from a different angle, my son pounced and raised my dripping phone to the sky with a howl of triumph. It must have flown from my pocket when I slipped and there it had been all along, in about five inches of muddy water, but still, apparently, working.
It was a day before it would charge without making a horrible alarmy noise, but is now in full working order, thank goodness. March 13th, lucky for some.
It was a day before it would charge without making a horrible alarmy noise, but is now in full working order, thank goodness. March 13th, lucky for some.