Hello everyone, Reading about Alan's favourite place evoked my own riverside memories. As a child I was brought up in the railway keepers cottage between Sturminster Marshall and Spetisbury. My favourite place was behind our cottage down by the banks of the Stour.On summer evenings we would walk along the bank walking away from Stur towards Spetisbury. The path went along side the bank of the river rising sharply so that within a few hundred yards you were just looking down a steep embankment and seeing the river way below. The banks had trees whose boughs grew out over the river and beneath grew bluebells, wild daffodils, primroses and snowdrops. Often we saw otters, and foxes and badgers with their young. When we got to the railway bridge we would turn and make our way back along the railway line, keeping a look out for any trains. At certain times of the year we would pick the tiny wild strawberries that grew on the railway bank, before making our way home. Last year I went back, and I am sad to say it had all changed. Of course the railway line has long gone. Our lovely old mellow red bricked cottage had been extended and pebble dashed and where the old railway gates were now there are stone lions!! I tried to walk along the river and people had been dumping rubbish on the paths and the banks were all so overgrown I could not see the river.The path had all grown in and it was impossible to walk along there. It left me feeling very sad. Dorset is still very,very beautiful, and I hope my experience was an isolated one. Terri