When I was child and the family were driving down or up from Scotland, Shap in Cumbria was the highest point on the route. In those days there always seemed to be some uncertainty as to whether the family car would get up and down the hill in one piece and Shap gained rather mythical status as a milestone on the journey.

But I had never stopped at Shap village until last week when I stopped to take some photographs and visit the ruins of Shap Abbey, apparently the last monastery to be founded in England before the Reformation. It is a cold and isolated spot now, partly integrated into a modern farm. But the spot seemed to rather favour the black and white picture which I took.