Out and about with The Rural Coffee Caravan

By Caitlin Howells, Dean Parkin, Lynn Whitehead

It’s been a great week to start travelling with The Rural Coffee Caravan; from a heat wave in Combs to umbrellas in Peasenhall – it’s been a joy to be out and about, meeting new people and making new friends, in an appropriately, socially-distanced way.

Whilst Lynn was in Redlingfield, gathering views about what makes the village such a special place to live, Dean was in Combs, learning that many paths lead to the same bench.

Yesterday, Caitlin and Candida visited Peasenhall, where we sat in the gentle rain and chatted with residents, some of whom have lived all their lives in the village, whilst others are relative new-comers (having been there only 25 years) but all agree that it’s a lovely place to live.

In all these locations, we asked participants to tell us a little bit about their village – and here’s what they said.

Postcards from Redlingfield

Postcards from Peasenhall

Village views

In Combs, one participant wrote the most moving of poems, the last lines of which are printed here:

The people I have known from before I knew myself
and others whose friendships bloomed later but no less beautifully
Potential: for new alliances, for a snowy winter to rival the one when we
were ten, or a summer thunderstorm to bring us all dancing
in the street; together.