A misty view of Slad village

This morning I happened to tune in to Radio4 Extra in the middle of a programme and wondered what it was. A quick check online revealed it was the first of two episodes of a dramatised version of Laurie Lee’s acclaimed novel ’Cider with Rosie’, originally broadcast in 2010. I listened with interest and then with pleasure. 

Lauire Lee's story was a recounting of his own upbringing in the village of Slad in Gloucestershire. The beautiful Slad valley is only about six miles long formed by the Slad Brook which flows down to join the main River Frome in the centre of Stroud town. It is regarded as a classic Cotswold working village hardly changed by modern development, though that threatens to arrive every couple of years when developers propose new housing estates.

I checked the weather forecast which looked to be clear of the early mists by mid afternoon. That was wrong, but I decided to try to get a scenic view of the village from the old single track road which traverses the dry parts on the other side of the valley. I hadn't been here for some time so it was a real pleasure to drive through the farmyards, cross cattle grids twisting and turning around and between copses and steep pastures. I parked just by the quarry below the locally famous Swifts Hill and poked my camera over the stone wall between hawthorn and hazel trees.

Laurie Lee used to drink throughout his life at his local pub, the Woolpack, which is the building you can see with three storeys, although the bottom storey has no windows. It is on a very steep hillside and had the old Slad Road just above it. It remains pretty much as it was when he was last drinking there before his death in 1997, although there is now a more recently added small feeding zone as well, but the atmosphere is still good.. 

He was buried in the cemetery of the local church which you can see about forty yards to the right of the pub. I think both his wife Kathy and daughter Jessy still live locally.

Here is a sunnier blip of a similar view.

The programme can be heard for the next 29 days via this BBC Sounds link.

Tim McInnerny plays Laurie and Niamh Cusack his mother, in this production recorded on location in and around the Slad valley. In the first of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, the Lee family arrive in their new home. It includes pupils from Rodborough Primary School, and original music by Paul Burgess.