Border Country.....

Took a cow and some lambs down to the mart at St Boswells today. Was getting along fine until I had to stop for the police doing checks at Earlston. There were 4 or 5 jam sandwiches parked up in the lay by and about 8 traffic police doing checks. When they were finished with me they handed over to someone asking about gangmasters. After explaining that we didn't use gang labour  I was allowed on my way.
Dropped stock off then kept heading south over the border. Went to Hexham then on to Edmundbyres in Co. Durham to visit my grandparents grave and do the Christmas flowers and clean the head stone. Their farm was in the Derwent valley,and they were forced to move when the valley was flooded to build the Derwent Reservoir in the early 1960s. According to the visitor board at the reservoir "Three farmsteads,two cottages and Millshield Mill had to be demolished before it could be filled " Bet there wasn't much of a choice either !