Stepping out

Salts Mill sits lower than the road, which is on a hill anyway and rises to cross the adjacent railway line. It necessitates a flight of stone steps from the mill yard up to the road. The first small flight splits into two and it's noticeable that the steps to the left (below) are rather more heavily worn than those to the right (shown above). Indeed, some of them have been repaired over the years. I suppose it indicates that many more people - mill workers over the years and today's visitors - have come and gone in the direction of the village rather than the canal and park. I suppose that's hardly surprising. There is something about the steps that bids me to pause and think about all the millions of feet that have trudged up and down in the nearly 175 or so years since the steps were built. If only stones could talk....