The Sunken Coach Road is an ancient thoroughfare which probably began as a drove track and has most likely been in continuous use for a few thousand years. We've heard it suggested that the continuous use accounts for the fact that the level of the "road" is approximately ten feet below the level of the adjoining fields.

Over the years its use changed, it is now a bridleway. The thoroughfare has been narrowed by encroaching vegetation and overhanging trees; the uneven, stony road is often very muddy, making it quite a challenge for walkers and horse riders alike.

A few weeks after this posting we returned with a friend and his children: one of whom was profoundly disappointed at the lack of sunken coaches!

We've been missing out the lower field in favour of the woods for a couple of weeks, but are really glad that we took this route today. On leaving field via its top exit, which takes us on to the Sunken Coach Road and with a short pull up the hill to the foot of Kings Wood we came across a most beautiful display of snowdrops covering the bank.

On a sunny afternoon the woods are looking great, overhead along the twisting branches of oaks the arboreal ferns catch the light and seem to glow. The trees cast long shadows across the leaf strewn ground. The rich, warm colours of the woodland floor counterpointed by the vivid greens of the grass in the field beyond.

Near the top gate of "the lower field", there stands a very large and mature pollarded willow. The pollarding has produced enormous knuckle-like pollard heads which rather puts us in mind of the "Whomping Willow" in the J.K.Rowling books.

To the left, beyond the fence under the tree a grey squirrel sat, quite unbothered by our presence, as it ate it's way through a hazelnut. Grey squirrels may be classed as pests due to their destructive habits, but they are none the less very engaging creatures.