The Potting Shed

There was no sign of  Mellors or Lady C. *, just a few hens scratching around.

This wonderful potting shed is in the vegetable garden of a large manor house.

It may be a vegetable garden but it is well tended and bursting with variety and plenty of  cottage garden flowers growing too.   The lean-to building is simply made, probably a potting shed, a heated one, too, if that chimney is anything to go by.

This huge pair of pillars are at the small side gate to the formal gardens.

The manor house lies at the end of a single track road, a very beautiful valley set in the folds of The Lincolnshire Wolds,  a small hamlet consisting of, perhaps, four houses, including the manor house, one farm with outbuildings, plus a tiny church.

To reach the church you have to walk through the farm buildings and down a grassy lane.  It feels like trespass.   There are no signs, but access is permitted.

I'll keep the story of the church for another day.

This place is tiny, almost suitable for a fairy story.  So cute.

The small windows are almost completely covered by the shrub, the door practically inaccessible.  Again, it has a chimney, so it would have been heated.  

As usual, I digress.    When I saw the potting shed I had a passing thought of Lady C and Mellors, probably because of all the recent trailers for the new BBC production.

Way back in the very early 1960's I remember finding a copy of it at home.  I was drawn by the bright orange spine (Penguin publication), suddenly the book was ripped out of my hands and there was a great air of disapproval from my parents.    Mystifying, I hadn't even opened the cover.  I was 8 or 9 years old, hadn't heard of Lady Chatterley or Mellors and was much more into Enid Blyton books anyway.

I noted the title.  *Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D H Lawrence.   My interest had been piqued by the strong reaction of my parents.

Years later, as a teenager, I once again got my hands on the book.   I flicked through it, looking for the naughty bits.

I was deeply disappointed.