Today the family met up in a small Shropshire village called Kinlet. We dined at the Eagle and Serpent, a modest affair, traditional Sunday roasts all round (excepting Sarah-Jane who does not eat meat) with a pudding to follow, came to £8.30 per head (excluding the drinks bill).
Drove down to Highley station before lunch for a peep at the steam trains, what a transformation. Severn Valley Railway now have a museum building and have carried out extensive works either side of the station. We were lucky enough to catch one train arriving, how it takes me back to my childhood. My Father worked at the old Snow Hill Station, in Birmingham, as a wheel-tapper shunter. For those who do not know, wheel-tappers hammered the steel wheels of the locomotives to see if they were cracked and the 'tyre' needed replacing. Snow Hill had a great domed glass roof. I recall riding on the footplate of a steam engine down to Bromford Bridge sidings, heady days.
The day ended with rain, more is the pity, otherwise a stroll along the River Severn would have been in order. Previous visits have cumulated in a very large bag of wild damsons. The banks of the shaded parts of the river heady with the scent of wild garlic.
Good to get together, as we do, on an annual basis, made more poignant now that my mother-in-law is no longer with us. She was the original motivation for the get togethers as they tended to coincide with her birthday. A moveable feast too, we were in Straford-upon-Avon last year and Sutton Coldfield the year before that.
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