What a day it was!

We walked out on Saturday to a little village close by with ancient thatched cottages. We came upon a little river running through a valley with a single track railway. Old oak trees, ducks and tall reeds - it was freezing but sunny and very peaceful. After a couple of hours of dawdle we reached an amazing restaurant. We were too late for lunch, which they stopped serving at 3.00, but they offered us coffee and cake. The place had been built as the canteen for workers at the Brede Mill. The mill is now a museum. It seems that the place was run on enlightened, if paternalistic, lines with employees being looked after from cradle to grave.