puddleshark

East House, Sydling St Nicholas. According to the Daily Mail, it was built in 1790 for the mistress of a merchant, and was once owned by Thomas Hardy. (But, Daily Mail: take everything it says with a large pinch of salt).

Frost on the car windscreen again this morning. But cloudless blue sky, and the lanes are lined with celandines and primroses. There's a faint fuzz of green appearing on the distant woods.

Set off early, the roads still quiet. By Grimstone took a right turn, under the railway viaduct. Followed the narrow one-track lane that runs alongside a chalk stream, Sydling Water. Sunlit catkins on the willows.

Sydling St Nicholas (definitely Sydling, and never Sidling: not a shifty saint): a long thin village built in the valley bottom, along the course of the chalk stream. Lots of pretty cottages. Which are probably also quite damp. Streams run in channels in front of and behind the houses. We had a very wet March, and here and there sandbags are in evidence.

This one's for sale. Guide price £825,000.

On the left, the old Vicarage dating 1640 restored in 1778. On the right, house with plaque above porch with the date 1733. And behind them, the rooks nesting. Something about vicarages (or possibly vicars) attracts rooks.

Cottage with sandbags round the front door.

I last came down this lane many years ago, on a walk with my beloved thug of a spaniel, Pip. And he caused such mayhem, it's taken till now for me to pick up the courage to return to the village. (I won't reveal all, even though the statute of limitations has probably expired: but in the end I had to rescue him from an angry goose...)

College House. (Possibly gets the name from the fact that many properties in the village used to belong to Winchester College).

The old mill leet, running behind the cottages on the High Street.

There's still a phone in the phone box! This is a rare thing now.

"The 1971 Census revealed that the population at that time was only 321 for the parish. Yet in 1859 the population stood at 675 and included 11 farmers and three carpenters, 2 bakers, 2 grocers, 2 cobblers, 2 thatchers and 1 blacksmith, a bricklayer, tailor, brewer, mason and miller." https://dorset-ancestors.com/?p=1877

No working mills these days. No smithy. No school, no post office, and no shops. But there's still a pub.

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Journey notes:

Sydling's quite a narrow village, but there's usually space to park beside the village hall in East Street, or up the lane towards the Church. Early on a Sunday or Bank holiday, Sydling's very peaceful, but the lane through the village is a rat-run to Yeovil, so you wouldn't want to be wandering along it later in the day on a weekday.

There's a lay-by a couple of minutes down the road from the Grimstone viaduct. You could park there in future to photograph the chalk stream at Langford.