The Potters Cottage On The Hilltop

A Memory of Brimscombe.

I knew Fred Potter and his family in the early 1960s - Fred and I dated for a while. Many times we got off the bus on the main road (I lived in Nailsworth), often straight from school - he at Marling, me at High School. We'd then walk past the lake and up that hill - seemed no distance in those days - to be greeted with a lovely tea from his mum - and then some Charlie Parker from Fred's record player. I remember how remote it was - Mrs Potter getting water from the old pump in the kitchen telling me that all manner of things would often appear in the water! Other water came from a spring in the opposite hillside - fetched by hand. Then there was the Elsan loo down the garden - with lots of foliage round the door. As Fred says - isolated it certainly was and in my youth I never truly appreciated the beauty of the place. I've been back to the area twice this year and discovered it again after asking a local if he remembered the Potter family which he did - so I walked to the cottage - how it's changed! Still beautiful and still remote - both of which I now fully appreciate - I'll be back again soon!

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