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Bricks and Mortar

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A quick detour to the Pozuel del Campo. It has been its own place since 1248, when James I said so. The GSH Dictionary notes ‘ POZUEL DEL CAMPO: a village with a town hall in the province of Teruel, judicial district of Calamocha, diocese and territorial court of Zaragoza, and captaincy general of Aragon. It is situated on the summit of a small hill surrounded by larger ones, preserving some sections of an ancient wall with turrets. The climate is healthy, and no particular diseases are known. It consists of 130 houses of moderate construction; a granary with meager stocks; a moderately attended public school; a parish church (San Miguel Arcángel), served by a priest appointed by the ordinary process; and a cemetery that poses no threat to public health. There is a well in the town, located to the north, from which the residents obtain their water. and also a spring in the village with little water. The land is of good quality and consists of plains and hills with patches of holm o...
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Almost five cubic metres of grain

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  The N-211 ever heads towards the east. We will follow up and pass El Pedregal but not go into it - well, it hasn’t got a pub. Sixty people live here today. In the 1930s-50s over 300 called it home. As always the 1960s saw the start of the flight to the towns. We will first pass the Cementerio Municipal. It is, according to Google, open from 9am to 3pm Monday-Thursday. Friday to Sunday you can visit till 6pm. It has two, five star reviews but neither Santiago or Jorge say why. What does the GSH Dictionary have to say about the place? PEDREGAL ( el ): l. with town hall in the province of Guadalajara (23 leagues)   Situated on rough and mountainous terrain, with free ventilation and a cold climate : it has 15 houses, the town hall, a primary school attended by 8 students under the charge of a teacher endowed with 12 fanegas of wheat, a parish church (Saint Peter the Apostle) annexed to that of Sotiles:  the terrain , broken and mountainous for the most part, is stony, ...
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Broken, cold and of medium quality

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  It is the 23rd October. Spanish wiki has some things for this date. Most are not Spanish however today in 1702 the Battle of Rande [or Vigo] in which our brave boys - by which I mean the Anglo-Dutch Fleet under Admiral Rooke, took on the Bourbons, under Admiral Velasco y Tejada and gave him a bit of a thrashing - all the Bourbon ships were sunk.  Because of this Vigo Street, London got its name.   We are off to El Pobo de Duenas. Literally. We are going to have to detour to get to it. It is another town that bears tribute to the effect of Spain’s economic miracle of the towns in the 1960s.  The population doubled between 1842 and 1857. By 1887 it was over 1000 and peaked at 1100 in 1910. In the 1920s it sunk back to the 700s, drifted to 550 in 1960 and thereafter steadily declined to the present 103. Our old friends the GSH reported in 1845, POBO ( el ): l. with town hall in the province of Guadalajara (25 leagues).  Situated on rough terrain with good ...
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A decimated village and the Virgin of the tree

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The N-211 scrapes, burrows and straighteneds itself along the plain and we will soon be bypassing Castellar de la Muela.  We aren’t going into the village, which today is home to 22 people. This is a tenth of what it was until 1960 - when it plunged to 37 over the next forty years. Of course the GSH was here in the 1840s.  Here are the edited highlights….  Situated on the eastern slope of a hill called La Muela , and exposed to north and south winds; the most common illnesses are rheumatism and chest ailments. It has 72 houses , distributed from the slope of the aforementioned hill to its summit; the town hall with a jail; a primary school, attended by 30 students, under the charge of a teacher paid 500 reales, and a parish church (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross), served by a priest and a sacristan.   The land , with the exception of some small orchards irrigated by hand with water from wells, is dryland and of fair quality: it comprises 1 pasture with some woo...
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