A Thoughtful Woman Maps

The entire district

Sally’s adventures take place in an English landscape bordered by the sea to the south, and the three towns of Ipington, Little Dimpton and Dalton to the north. 

  • The map below has been rotated to be phone/tablet friendly.
  • Thick black line – the coast, with the sea to the left. (south)
  • Grey shaded areas – towns and villages.
  • Blue – rivers, streams, ponds.
  • Solid lines – roads
  • Very light, dotted lines – walking/cycling tracks.

A Thoughtful Woman key locations

This map is one level of zoom down from the district map, showing all the key locations in Sally’s first adventure, Running down the left side of the map we start with the bay at Coveton, then Little Throcking with its six small roads heading up the hill, the Sky river, Ornamental Estate with its distinctive beehive shape, Throcking, the golf club, then a longer drive down to tiny Wesser Bech and the Gelt river. 

  • The map below has been rotated to be phone/tablet friendly.
  • Thick blue line – the coast, with the sea to the left. (south)
  • Blue – rivers, streams, ponds.
  • Solid lines – roads
  • Orange dotted lines – walking/cycling tracks.

A – The Widow Maker track (The upper half running all the way east to Bleak Road)
B – Bleak Road (Running from the road to Ipington at the top of the map to the Little Dimpton road in the middle.)
C – Emma’s house (At the very top of Galleon, looking all the way across the Sky Valley to Sally’s place at H.)
D – Heaven’s Spur (A look out with a fabulous view of the entire coast.)
E – The Widow Maker track (The lower half running from the flying fox, across the road and into the moors.)
F – Drunkard’s Lane (From its southern end at Bleak Road, heading north towards Little Dimpton.)
G – Throcking Castle (An Iron Age hill fort with great views down the Esk Valley.)
H – Sally’s house (The north western corner of Throcking, looking across the Sky valley to Emma’s.)
I – Peregrin’s house (On the south eastern corner of Throcking, looking out over the golf course.)
J – Bob Harland’s house at Wesser Bech
K – Elbow Lane 

Throcking Detailed Map

A further level of zoom gives us a much closer look into the two villages.

  • The map below has been rotated to be phone/tablet friendly.
  • Thick blue line – the coast, with the sea to the left. (south)
  • Blue – rivers, streams, ponds.
  • Solid lines – roads
  • Orange dotted lines – walking/cycling tracks.

a – Miss Helen’s home (The western most house in Little Throcking itself.)
b – Miss Helen’s dungeon (Right in the middle of Little Throcking.)
c – Cutty Sark Café (One of the finest eateries on the coast, with a great view out to sea.)
d – Emma’s house (At the top of a good hill that runs down to the track to the Esk river.)
e – The beck pool/Widow Maker (A hidden ravine.)
f – Flying fox (A wire rope running down from the eastern side into the forest on the western bank.)
g – Sky road bridge (The only road crossing between Throcking and Little Throcking.)
h – Holmes’s house (Right at the top of Ornamental Estate.)
i – Throcking Castle (Iron Age hill fort with fabulous views of the Sky valley and the entire coast.)
j – Sally’s house 
k – Thomlinson’s house
l – Police station (Downhill from the hospital.)
m – Hospital (Serves the entire district.)
n – Felicity’s house (A short walk across the fields to Peregrin and Alison.)
o – Peregrin and Hillary’s house.
p – Alison’s house (She owns all the land between her place and the golf course.)

The golf course

If you’re a true golfer you’ll be wondering exactly how the course plays out. If you’re not a true golfer, this next map will be of no interest whatsoever!

The course starts at the small fishing harbour, curving around its eastern end to the green at the very edge of the bluff down to the sea. The skilful might be tempted to shoot across the water or even try a controlled slice, but the slightest error will see the ball in the water. The second hole looks easy on the map, but there’s a slight slope to the right towards the sea that has to be factored in. The third is positively evil, and anyone rattled by a lost ball or two on the first two holes is likely to lose another one here. The fourth raises the bar still higher, beginning with a shot across a small bay, into a dogleg that ends at a green entirely surrounded by water, but then mercy is granted and the last five holes in the first nine have only the trees and shrubbery to harry an errant ball.

The back nine reminds the player that this is a water course, the pond reaching out for the slightest hint of a hooked drive, and the stream lurking in wait at the end of the tenth green. But that’s just a warm up for the toughest three holes on the course. The dogleg on the eleventh tempts the unwary into hitting long and finding the sea, but any kind of mistake will cause the player to lose a ball on the twelfth as they hit down the middle of a narrow peninsula to a tiny green perched at its very tip. The thirteenth is, if anything, even worse, calling not only for a shot across the sea, but also for one of perfect length and perfect straightness, the sea surrounding the green on three sides. The fourteenth is positively relaxing after that, with the ocean on just the one side of the fairway. The fifteenth further lulls the now shattered player into a false sense of security, heading inland and away from the nightmare waves, but it’s a trap. The green falls steeply away from the end of the fairway towards the lake and there’s not a friendly bunker in sight that might stop a ball as it heads relentlessly for yet another dip. The sixteenth also plays the sloping green trick, but even crueller than the fifteenth, this one slopes backwards into the water. But finally, the player can relax, to some degree at least. The seventeenth and eighteenth require just an honest loft to clear the pond, and a modicum of accuracy before arriving at at the nineteenth hole. One long term member firmly believes that the last two are deliberately easy so as to allow the player to arrive back at the clubhouse in need of a stiff drink, but not so upset that they go straight home without first visiting the bar!