Pottery Beach

The sun is shining on the last day before the children of Denby and surroundings go back to school. They are playing happily in the sand, digging, making sandcastles and burying the odd one..... parents and grandparents sit relaxing, batting away the wasps.....

A typical seaside scene ? Well, not quite. (And no kids in the shot, which took some getting - you have to be so careful these days)

Denby - and Pottery Beach - is about as landlocked as it gets. Denby is famed for its pottery and was early in the fashion for factory shopping. It nearly went bankrupt at one point, until it was revamped a few years ago.

To add to that revamp, they have created this wonderful, enormous sandpit - widening the clientele from coachloads of pensioners to a great facility for kids.

I spent a happy morning and lunchtime there with my sister and her family (they have an excellent café)

And I got some marvellous bargains in the factory shop too - a glorious mistake in their Monsoon range, when they printed the ornate pattern on the wrong size plate. Well, who am I to refuse ?