Buckshaw

The first time I encountered the self-named Coffee Cow, she was serving from a portable coffee stall in the car park of Chorley station. It seemed a cracking little business - with very good coffee, nice cakes, loyalty cards etc - and much as I enjoyed our transactions, I gave it no more thought than that.

Then the Minx told me that the Coffee Cow was opening a shop, the Cow Shed, and when it launched and we went over to see it, I was blown away. I wish this was a major coffee franchise rather than the tax-dodgers we normally find on the high street.

The Cow Shed is in Buckshaw - two or three miles from Chorley, I guess - and when we first visited last year, it seemed the Cow Shed and the shops around it were stuck in the middle of a wasteland, but every time we go back, a few new houses are going up. The ones in the picture went up fairly early on, maybe even just before we started going to Buckshaw. They're an unconventional design but the funny thing is that although we adults look at them askance, all the kids think they're fantastic.