Swartha's sunlit splendour

Above: overnight freezing temperatures in the first week of February were followed by crystal-clear sunlit days, highlighting the charms of local locations and offering uplifting walks along popular lanes. Here an almost blue hue has been cast on the road through Swartha, looking up to the Nab.

Above: the hamlet's handsome row of houses looks at its best beneath a deep-blue sky.

Above: the unmade lane more than 90 years ago. The message on this postcard is dated September 1924.

Above: farther along Swartha Lane is a picture-book terrace of three old cottages which at the front look across to High Swartha Farm. No. 2 Swartha Cottages has been newly extended.

Above: the refurbished and extended No. 2 is named Bob's Cottage, after the late Bob Bell, a fine amateur organist, who lived there for many years. 

Above: older residents will remember this yesteryear view of No. 2 Swartha Cottages. The photograph was taken by the late Will Baldwin.

Above: the row of cottages today. It can be seen that No. 6 at the far end has also been extended, although some years ago. The photograph below shows the three cottages in the early 1900s. Swartha means "dark ravine", which would have described the setting of the nearby wood. There has been an agricultural settlement at Swartha for around 800 years.

Above: an undated postcard from around the 1950s.