The Black Mountains in The View from the Terrace

When I looked through my window this morning I noticed that the larger trees in the distance have shed all of their leaves now and we can see the Black Mountains again. When we bought this place in 1978 the view of the mountains was one of the attractions, well the main attraction if I am honest. I do remember saying that any problems with the house could be fixed but the view will always be there. A bit naive that, but I don’t regret our decision in spite of all of the problems we have had with the house. I was wrong about the view though. It really isn’t the same view now that it was then. The trees have grown and in the summer we can’t see much of the mountains any more. Then, when the weather is starting to get colder and wetter and I am starting to feel the beginnings of winter blues, the leaves fall and the mountains appear again and my spirits lift. Then later when it gets really cold and there is snow on them they look so beautiful.

It’s interesting the way views change over the years. I have a picture of our village taken at the turn of the twentieth century and it is so different then. There were hardly any trees in the fields opposite our house. There was also another railway line that branched from the one that runs at the bottom of our garden. It went across the fields and up the Golden Valley. When we first moved here you could still walk along the old old track way but it is much harder to see now. There is still a level crossing gate in the garden of one of the houses in the next village.

Our village used to be important with it’s own station and a cattle market and a pub. The pub burned down in the 1930s. The cattle market had closed when we moved here but it was still there. Now there is a new housing development on it. The station was closed in the 60s and is now a bed and breakfast aimed at railway enthusiasts. I can’t see the attraction of staying somewhere where the trains rush by a few feet away from your window but it is very popular and we still have the odd steam train. The people at the old station have a wonderful collection of old photos of the area and of the old trains.

I loved the steam trains when I was a child. I grew up in Shrewsbury and we kids used to go round to a bridge over the main line and watch the trains disappear round the bend in the distance. I always wondered where they went to and I find it quite moving that I now live 60 miles further down that line, so it went to my future home.

I know where the railway goes now but I still wonder about the people on the trains that go by, where they are going and why. Then I look up at the mountains and I am glad we took that decision to buy this place for the view all those years ago.

This photo was taken in the spring from our back garden