Spring line

The old east-west route through the village runs along the spring line but only twice in the forty-seven years we have lived here have the springs surfaced. Now there are three springs vigorously bubbling up at the side of the road. This footpath is the path taken by schoolchildren on their way to school and it has been impassable for several weeks now. All is not lost because almost parallel to the road is a very old path through fields and woodland which joins the churches in three neighbouring villages and passes close to the school, and the schoolchildren's half mile route has been diverted down this path.
It must have been very early people who decided that the spring line was the place to found a community. I love to imagine those days.