Memories of childhood at a Cornish watermill

St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Marie Lorraine Martin's paintings depict the seasons at Cotehele mill in the early 19th century

From the door of the dim church tower, with its window portraying Saint Dominica and her brother Saint Indract, we emerge into the glare of spring sunshine to follow the coffin of our mother who has died, aged 101 years. Overhead, the rooks caw and perch in pairs near refurbished nests; bright celandine and pale primrose gleam around the old slate headstones, and ramsons colonise shade beneath the beech. Towards her burial plot we pass graves of ancestors who were farmers, millers, brewers and market gardeners in this rural parish.