Some hills are high. Others are long. Mine was a long one. I lived at the bottom of it  from 1971 until 1977. Up the hill from our village were three hamlets; small collections of house and farm-buildings. All three were called Twinhoe. The first one – the lowest – was Middle Twinhoe. The next – the middle one  – was Upper Twinhoe. The topmost Twinhoe was, inevitably, Lower Twinhoe. No-one, as I recall, found this arrangement odd.

_____

Lawrence Norfolk is a writer. His books include The Pope’s Rhinoceros and In The Shape Of A Boar.