The ruined walls of the Wey House cottages

I went for a walk behind our house this afternoon as the day transformed when the sun came out. I walked down the path beside our house and out into the valleys of The Horns and The Heavens, as they are known locally. I dropped steeply down to the Lime Brook, whose level was quite low, and crossed over the old stepping stones and climbed up to the site of the former Wey House, where a farm sat right beside an ancient trackway, leading into Stroud from the hilltops, on a route which would have been as dry as possible.

The house there was only torn down after the 1940s and the stones still lie about although now covered by brambles, trees and shrubs.  Just above that site a woodland follows another old trackway round the contours to cross the stream running down from an area high up called The Heavens. Under those trees were two smaller cottages providing homes for farm or woodland workers. They were demolished earlier than Wey House but all the land is owned by a bigger farm on the hilltops. We think the buildings were demolished to stop them being occupied by squatters. Their location is absolutely wonderful and would be where I would locate a home. In fact a friend, who is an archaeologist, has found evidence of  thirteenth century mills very close to this area, as well as Roman pottery and evidence of walls which might well be the remains of a small Roman villa. These were all close to the head of the stream just beside the waterfall and is where I stood to take today's 'Extras photo'. The tree on the right is called the Magic Tree, and is loved by local kids as they can swing out over the valley from ropes hanging from its branches. You might just spot two kids and their mum walking away from the tree having had fun swinging underneath it.

The ruined walls of the cottage are about fifty feet higher up the slope in the wood behind the Magic Tree. We live in one of the white houses you can see at the back of this scene and my desk looks out over these valleys, which I love.

I chose the ruined walls as there is another Derelict Sunday challenge today. I feel it is right to celebrate its first anniversary, and must thank Freespiral for hosting it and to sometime blipper Sarum Stroller, who started the challenge originally. I hope you can make out the corner of the front of the cottage nearest the camera and the other end some yards further along the valley.