After my visit to Danby I followed the road, not really knowing where I was heading, but ended up in the lovely village of Lealholm.
It’s quite small but has a village shop, tea rooms, garage, plant nursery, a primary school, both a church and a chapel, a railway station, plus a football pitch where two teams were battling it out.
I left the car in the free car park, crossed the bridge over the River Esk and headed in the direction of the famous stepping stones which I’d read about on the village noticeboard.
Due to its proximity to the River Esk and its tributaries, flooding has long been a problem for some of the lower lying houses in the village. Marks carved into the side wall of the Methodist chapel show the heights of floods in the past. At the lowest level, the floods in November 2000 stand just short of the floods in July 1840. However, these were low compared to major flooding on 23 July 1930 when the Methodist chapel stood more than 3 feet 3 inches (1 m) underwater, even though the chapel itself stands approximately 7 feet (2.1 m) above the normal water level of the river. WIKIPEDIA
We’ll definitely return and check out the nursery in the Spring when we’ll be planting up the new back garden.