Hanging Around

On the banks of The Ythan River, here in Ellon, are several very old clothes poles. Some of them only have about 18 inches showing above the ground. You can imagine, back in the 19th century, with houses almost right up to the riverbank, the women of the village hanging out their washing on a fine day, with swans and ducks swimming by.
Just along from this point, before the bridge was built, was the ford, the old crossing point, where the coaches would stop on their way north, maybe to stop over at the coaching inn, now the New Inn.