Don't Mind: Cruxmont - "Quiet Cruxmont"

Hello and well met listeners.

Thank you for joining me once again on this new episode of the Little Places Travel Journal podcast with me, your host Molly Dolman.

This week we continue our winding tour of the hills and paddocks of the English countryside and I have a charming hidden gem to speak with you about today.

Cruxmont.

Here are my travel journal snippets of Little Cruxmont.

So listen, relax and imagine with me the rolling fog, wide fields and heavy trees of this quiet, lonely village.

I drove into Croxmont via the singular but tickly paved road in and out.

It's clear that this is a sleepy town, a pass-through town, a type with no petrol station and a corner grocer where the shopkeeper knows everyone's name.

The town is surrounded by rolling hills covered in manicured orchards and ringed by a low stone wall and a row of trees planted decades ago to denote the orchard's end.

Patches of sparse forest and dotted trees cross the otherwise pristine hills beyond, a true piece of Northern England's area of outstanding natural beauty.

Inside the small village, dotted with narrow pitch-roof houses and well-tented gardens, flowering and freshly painted here and there, it can be seen in every fence post and every cobbled road that the people of Cruxmont take great pride in their home.

Shops are orderly, and not a chain store is to be seen, from the woman and her daughter moving clothes racks outside on a sunny day for locals to peruse, to the small chat of regulars as they exit the local grocer.

But outside of the grocer, overflowing with tended pale foxgloves, falling blush wisteria, and vibrant violet Delphinians, is a homemade stand of mint-painted wood, contrasting the sharp and vibrant purple of their abundant wares.

Plums.

Plum juice, plum wine, plum jam, plum candies and sweets, plum chutney, plum salads, spicy or sweet, plum fizz and plum concentrate, plum cobbler and scones, little wreaths and dolls made of plum boughs.

Plum-scented candles and essential oils.

And these treats are not just for the rare tourist who drives through their little town.

The villagers of Cruxmont love their local plums.

They stop by for a ginwag, a bit of plum pudding and a cup of tea, or to pick up fresh plums and flour for a night of baking.

If there is some way to use a plum from breakfast to dessert and everything in between, Cruxmont has it mastered.

This plum mania is the result of the generations-old plum orchard that rounds the many hills of Cruxmont.

All Hills Orchard.

Almost everyone in Cruxmont is connected to All Hills Orchard in one way or another.

The innkeeper's brother is a farmer there, tending the trees throughout the year to maintain their health and bounty.

One of the many employed by the Orhill family.

The innkeeper's daughter is a distributor of plum wares out to nearby villages and towns.

The innkeeper herself is only an innkeeper approximately two weekends of the year, otherwise the inn is just a little boarding house for the stray traveller that comes their way.

But those two weekends out of the year bring a sizeable crowd to Cruxmont.

The annual plum festival, held in some form or another for hundreds of years, happens in late August through September.

The dates moving to accommodate the ripening of the fruits.

Many of the orchards are private to the Orhills commercial activities, but during the festival, one of the hills is open to fruit picking, picnics and more.

And a great field near the primary barn is filled with stalls and stages.

Every plum treat imaginable is available for purchase and demonstrations of how wares are made bring interested DIYers looking to make plum liquor or the perfect plum pie.

With traditional music and drinks, the festival rolls through the days and nights.

Children wear small pigger masks or paint their faces in the guise of foxes in childish reverence to a family of foxes said to have protected the orchards from pests and rodents, securing their bounty across the generations.

But as Sunday comes to an end, the car engines start up and the visitors leave, and Croxmont is left again in its unspoiled and preferred peace.

Croxmont perfects a weekend of calm and heartwarming festivities, but closes its doors to too much excitement after that.

So if you're in the area during the festival, book a stay at the neighbouring towns, or, if you're lucky enough, in Croxmont proper.

and attend the festival.

In a single weekend you can enjoy village, orchard and all and move on to the next town with a feeling of pastoral warmth and a basket full of plum treats for the whole family.

Thank you for joining me for today's episode.

I've been your guide, Molly.

And for more information on today's little place, please check out the show notes for links and transcripts.

And as always, I hope you have safe and happy travels wherever you may be.

From a trip across the globe to a walk in the park, every little place can bring you something new.

Hey Neil, saw another castle today.

We hold them in such high regard in the US, but they're all over the place here.

Seriously, I'm drinking in a pub that's probably older than our country.

Anyway, that's where I'm headed next.

Cruxmont.

Just passing through.

Won't be there for the festival, but it's exactly the kind of calm I'm looking for.

Oh, and there was this boulder on the path that almost looked like a face.

So someone put moss on it to give it an eyebrow and a bad comb over.

I think you would have appreciated it.

Hope to catch you next time.

Talk later.