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Tudor Turrets and Topiary

Tudor Turrets and Topiary

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(Note: Click on the pictures for a larger version)

Last Thursday it was raining, overcast and gloomy to the extent that I needed a light on in my study to be able to see properly (this is August remember!). Friday dawned with a clear sky and was forecast to be a sunny day. This is English weather.

We took advantage of the good weather to visit a place that we had been meaning to visit for some time – Kentwell Hall in Long Melford, Suffolk. The current owners bought Kentwell Hall when some of it was in a ruinous state and have restored it to its current condition; that of a lived in Tudor mansion.

Long Melford is unusual for a village in that it boasts two Tudor mansions. Melford Hall, run by the National Trust, and this one and, having been to both, we think that Kentwell Hall is the more attractive of the two.

Although both mansions exhibit some similar features, such as the typical Tudor turrets, Kentwell Hall has a notable feature that Melford Hall doesn't have and that is a moat which completely encircles the house.

This is a 'moat of note' in that it contains a lot of Carp and these are MEGA carp. If you touch your forefinger and thumb together to form a circle it will be about the size of the mouths of these fish. They seem to congregate near the bridge at the front of the house and as soon as visitors look over the bridge parapet they come to the surface with mouths agape hoping for food. Carp ain't so dim.

Alongside the moat at the back of the house is some unique topiary.

This is known as the 'Pied Piper Topiary' and one can distinguish figures of people, children and dogs.

To the east of the house is an unusual sculpture made from a still standing tree stump.

This is a 60 foot high storm-damaged cedar sculpted by Colin Wilbourne into his interpretation of the Tower of Babel. An absolutely amazing piece of work.

Kentwell Hall has extensive grounds which include some very attractive gardens.

The Pied Piper topiary shows up well against the moat and the walled garden beyond looks very impressive.

I thought that I would photograph this detail in the walled garden in order to 'urn' my keep only to find that the Pied Piper topiary has sneaked into the background once again.

Kentwell Hall used to have two moats, apparently showing it to be of vey high status, although only part of the second moat now remains. It has, however, been used to good effect as part of the gardens.

The inside of the house is equally impressive and includes the expected such as the Great Hall

and the unusual – duet anyone?

I suppose that this is what must be meant by 'toilet humour'.

We decided to finish by looking around the grounds outside of the gardens. I wasn't the only one taking photographs and Amanda took this one of a couple of old donkeys having a chat. I'm not sure which one has the most untidy hair.

There have been a number of new out-buildings built in the Tudor style and it gives a very good idea of what a Tudor building must have looked like when it was brand new.

Very unlike the Tudor buildings we see today with their warped and twisted timbers. Now you'll be able to return in 500 years for a comparison.

We had a very enjoyable and entertaining time here and would certainly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area. If you want to see more then you'll just have to wait until the new pages appear on the web site proper with even more photographs unless, of course, you pay Kentwell Hall a visit in person before then.
 

Kew 2 – The route march!

Kew 2 – The route march!

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Monday 25th July was forecast to be a fine day. Just one fine day in a run of unsettled weather so we grasped it, so to speak, with both hands. We used our Senior Railcards to get a third off the fare to London, £15.80 each, and as that includes a Travelcard (Zones 1-6) we then get to go right across London to Kew at no extra cost. Bargain! We present our 2For1 voucher when we get to Kew Gardens and get in for £12 for the two of us. Can't be bad.

On this, our second, visit Amanda is going to give the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the nearby Rock Garden a thorough going over while I have decided to march all the way round the perimeter, with diversions of course. It's a lovely sunny day, pleasantly warm with temperatures in the low seventies.

But first we both visited the Palm House to go up on the high level walkway and this is how we got up there.

It seems that, after a while, the spiral staircase was going to go on for ever but we got there in the end. The walkway is quite narrow but feels very sturdy and there's comforting steel railings to stop one falling off.

Looking out through the glass gave us a nice view.

Then looking the other way gives us a different view.

You may notice that it is quite a long way up and it's HOT and humid up here. Phew!

This Palm is the tallest 'house plant' in the world. You may be able to see that its fronds are touching the roof and the tree can be seen only as far down as the level of the walkway so there's a lot more of it below. We eventually came back down to earth, luckily without a bump, and went to see the view from the Temple of Aeoleus that is indicated as a viewpoint on the map of Kew Gardens. It wasn't really worth it. Most of it is now obscured by trees.

We decided to go for an early lunch which would then gives us a long afternoon for our separate projects. So we went back to the Victoria Gate to the cafe there. After lunch we split up and I turned left (south) and started my route march. If you want to follow my progress you can do so on this map: http://www.kew.org/ucm/groups/public/documents/document/ppcont_008324.pdf If you right click on the link you should be able to open it in a new window so that you can refer to it whilst reading.

My first diversion was to the Temperate House and up yet more spiral stairs to the high level walkway here.

It is rather similar to the walkway in the Palm House but with different plants of course. There is a very good view of the trees from up here and there is a person on the ground in the next picture if you can spot them in the shadows.

There is an excellent aerial view of the big fish in the pond from up here and I'll bet that they didn't even suspect that they were being spied on satellite style.

Out of the Temperate House and back to the perimeter path and onward towards the Pagoda.

This pagoda is not a small structure and there appear to be ten fairly substantial storeys – quite impressive. Having reached the first corner, south-east, I turned west and a little way further on I came across the Japanese Gateway.

I remember on our last visit when we crossed the lake on the Sackler Crossing that we'd missed seeing the Lily Pond so this time I made another diversion to see it. I needn't have bothered! It may have been nice had the water been visible but the whole pond was covered in some sort of floating water weed. Oh well, back to the perimeter track and Queen Charlotte's Cottage. On the way I came across some of these:

Back to Queen Charlotte's Cottage. It's not that easy to find as it is well surrounded by trees but I managed it eventually. The date it was built doesn't seem to be known but the earliest mention of it is in the 1700s.

After this I reached the next corner, south-west, where I turned right (north) and had a glimpse of the River Thames. The river is still tidal at this point and the water level was low with mudbanks both sides so the overall view wasn't particularly picturesque.

On my way along the west side, towards the Brentford Gate, I saw this rather attractive display:

From Brentford Gate I cheated a bit. On our last visit we saw Kew Palace so I cut the corner off and headed straight for the Princess of Wales Conservatory as it was in that area I had arranged to meet Amanda.

A quick call on my mobile 'phone and we met up outside the conservatory and Amanda took me to see the Secluded Garden she had already visited.

Then we went in to the Duke's Garden which was very colourful. By this time I could hear my legs muttering to themselves so I though it was time to let the poor old things rest. We made our way back to Victoria Gate where we had a cup of tea then we went home.

Two long visits and we still haven't seen everything that there is to see.

Round the world in a day.

Round the world in a day.

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Our railway line terminates at Liverpool Street Station on the east side of London and we pass through Stratford, where the Olympic Statium is being constructed, on the way. This trip we got off at Stratford to get on the London Overground which we hadn't used before.

The London Overground is really an ordinary overground railway line, like the one we use to get to Liverpool Street Station, but is run by Transport for London and is treated as part of the London Underground system so any Underground ticket will also cover you for use of the London Overground, for the relevant zones, without any extra payment. :mrgreen:

The trains themselves are of a new design where you can walk from one end of the train to the other along the central aisle without having to pass through any doors.

We were obviously on that train but where were we going?

The weather lately has become very unsettled with a lot of cloud and some areas have also had some rain so not a good time to go out and about. However Tuesday, yesterday, was forecast to be sunny and warm to the west of London so we were headed to Kew gardens.

The total journey for us was about two and a half hours and we arrived at the gate around 11:30 AM. There was a queue of about six people so it didn't take long to get in. We had our 2for1 voucher, and we get in at the 'concessions' price being 'decayed persons' which reduced the entry charge to 11.90 for both of us.

There are plants from all over the world here so we had a lot of countries to travel through. We'd better get started then.

We were told that the Palm House was closing today at 2:00 PM so we headed there first. What they didn't tell us is that the high level walkway was closed for filming which was a pity as I was looking forward to taking some high level photographs. :cry:

This is an amazing Victorian building and is a 'must see'. I have to say I wouldn't like to be responsible for cleaning the windows. :shock:

There is a lot of vegetation in here and it's fairly popular although it doesn't feel that one is jostling for space. It's also warm!

Behind the Palm House is the Rose Garden and the little building on the left is the Waterlily House of which more later.

One thing to say about Kew Gardens is that it's not quiet. Apart from the other visitors there are these thing going over at the rate of about one a minute. :roll:

This is one of the 'smaller' ones. You can see here that they are offset a little to one side of us but later in the day they were directly overhead. You can blame it all on overseas visitors landing at Heathrow Airport. :devil:

I took that photograph whilst we were walking from the Palm House to the Temperate House which is another of the stunning Victorian structures here. It is huge!

I couldn't go back far enough to get it all in because of the trees and so there is a section chopped off at each end (that's the section nearest the camera in the top picture of the two).

Like the Palm House this place is stuffed with plants some of which are impressively tall.

There is a small pond in here containing some fish which are impressively large.

Another thing they didn't tell us when we entered was that the high level walkway in this house was also closed for maintenance but this is how we would have reached it had it been accessible. Next time then I suppose. :bawl:

From the Temperate House we went up here.

It's called the 'Xstrata Treetop Walkway' and it runs in a complete circle through the treetops. You probably need a head for heights for this and if you lean on the rail along the edge of the walkway you can feel the whole structure swaying slightly but it's certainly worth it for the local views.

I should warn you that the floor of the walkway is made from metal which is pressed in a sort of 'open weave' fashion so that if you look down vertically through your feet you can see right down to the ground.

It was now around 1:30 PM so we decided to head for the White Peaks Cafe for some lunch and to go via the Sackler Crossing across Kew's main lake then via the Bamboo Garden, the Minka House and the Rhododendron Dell. It's going to be a late lunch.

The lake is only a short walk from the Treetop Walk and we were soon there.

The edges of the bridge are constructed using bronze posts which, from a narrow viewing angle appear to a solid wall but when looked at from a right angle appear as individual posts with gaps between.

After crossing the lake we headed for the Minka House and on our way we saw these:

A group on their way to the Young Goose Convention perhaps? They are Canada Geese and when we were walking along the path we walked through a group of adults and young walking in the opposite direction and they didn't show the slightest nervousness of us humans as we passed through their group. Not surprising I suppose as they must see a lot of us.

This is the Minka House which was originally a farmhouse built around 1900 in a suburb of Okazaki City, near the southern coast of central Japan, dismantled, shipped to England and re-assembled here by Japanese carpenters as part of the Japan 2001 Festival.

Onward through the Rhodedendron Dell.

We eventually arrived at the White Peaks Cafe at around 2:00 PM. Food and drink in Kew Gardens is a little on the pricey side but, for a captive audience, it could be a lot worse. We each had a small quiche, smaller than the average saucer, with a few salad leaves and a sprinkling of sauce which cost 3.50 each. A slice of (fancy) cake, which we didn't have, would have been about the same. Drinks are reasonably priced. There seems to be little difference in prices at each of the available cafes/restaurants.

There is nothing to stop you bringing your own food and having a picnic outside in the gardens but of course you'll have to carry it round with you. There are also drinking fountains dispensing free ordinary water in a few places.

After lunch we heade off towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory and, on the way, passed by the 17th century Kew Palace. This is one of the Royal Palaces and has an extra charge if you want to visit – we didn't.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was commissioned in 1982 to replace a group of 26 smaller buildings that were falling into disrepair. It was named after Princess Augusta, founder of Kew, and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It is the most complex conservatory at Kew, containing ten computer-controlled climatic zones under one roof. Kew describe it as 'vast' – it is. I haven't seen a better place in which to get lost and thoroughly enjoy yourself whilst doing so.

As I mentioned above there are ten different climatic zones separated by double doors and these zones are also split into different levels with numerous connecting pathways and steps. When arriving at a junction it is difficult to decide which way to go because each way looks equally interesting.

This is what we saw after entering the conservatory:

Quite an attractive little corner for a short rest. There are two ways on from here, right or left, and we went left through the Temperate Ferns zone and through into the Tropical Rainforest zone which is probably the largest of the zones.

Phew! That's both from the visual and climatic points of vew. On the left you will notice a small door which is one of two entrances to the Carniverous Plants Gallery and I did notice that fewer visitors came out than went in. I wonder why that is?  :???: These are a few of those plants although there are many different types.

We did, eventually, find our way out and walked the short distance to the Davies Alpine House and Rock Garden.

From the rock garden we went to the Waterlily House.

It was now getting close to the time we should leave so we elected to get a cup of tea and then made our way back to Kew Gardens Station and thence home.

There will be lots more photographs for those who are interested when I get around to creating the pages for Kew on the main web site.
 

To Babylon and back.

To Babylon and back.

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Yesterday we went to London. This is one of the photographs I took whilst we were there and I want you to look at it carefully – not just a quick scan – carefully. Do you notice anything unusual?

Oh for goodness sake – do I have to tell you everything? The trees – look at the trees! No, no, no not that one on the left – the trees on the roof!

One of the places we visited was the Kensington Roof gardens in Kensington High Street. This building used to be the Derry and Toms department store which moved into this Art Deco style building in 1932 and the roof gardens were completed in 1938. We wandered around the various parts of the garden for about an hour, and there are one and a half acres of it, and saw very few other people.

The flamingos and ducks are real and there were even a few ducklings with their parents but then some of us had to take things to the extreme and started looking as though they were enjoying themselves.

We finally decided it was time to leave, go back down to earth and wander the streets of Kensington. We crossed High Street to the north side and strolled up Kensington Church Walk.

We emerged into Holland Street, turned up Gordon Place, along Pitt Street and into Hornton Street and we did see some striking buildings on the way.

We decided to head for Holland Park along the Duchess of Bedford's Walk, I'm sure she didn't mind, and arrived in the park near lunchtime. The last time we were here with Marie we couldn't find the cafe but we did this time and had our lunch there.

When we left Holland park we decided, on the spur of the moment, to go to the Natural History Museum in South kensington, so made our way towards Holland Park underground station but going via Holland park Mews.

A very attractive little street where all the houses seemed to have an unusual feature – all the main entrance doors were on the upper floor hence the flight of steps on each house.

The Natural History Museum is an amazing building both outside and inside before even considering the contents.

I spent quite a time wandering around the Great Hall just looking at, and photographing, the building's features whilst Amanda went off to explore elswhere.

She eventually returned and said that she'd found something which may interest me from the photographic point of view. We both went off to find her discovery which isn't that straight forward in this maze of a building but we did manage, eventually, and this is what she had found.

It's the rather dramatic entrance, up an escalator and through the planet, to a complex gallery of exhibits detailing the Earth's formation and history. Very impressive.

After losing ourselves in those galleries we made our way to our penultimate location – a gallery that I can remember visiting when I was a youngster.

One of the mammal galleries featuring a gigantic Blue Whale. You'd need a mega fish tank for one of those.

There were other mammals in this gallery including this happy chappie. I'm glad that he was well and truly stuffed because, if he wasn't, I probably would have been. He looks a bit peeved.

It was now getting near time to depart for home but on our final wanderings we found ourselves here:

Strange init! The white shape on the right, part of the new extension, is called 'The Cocoon' and houses yet more exhibits but we had just run out of time. It was back home for us but we plan to return to 'The Cocoon' another time. Watch this space.
 

Down among the tulips something stirred.

Down among the tulips something stirred.

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Monday 18th April saw us heading off to London on the train, on our first trip of the year, to meet Marie who was over here from America and who was leaving for home the next day. We had arranged to meet at Holland Park Station so that we could start our day by visiting Holland Park.

Marie was waiting for us and we duly set off on the short walk to the park. Holland Park has a number of entrances and the entrance near the underground station was called Sun Trap and looked quite imposing.

We went through the gateway and found ourselves in a wooded area and, as we progressed, we started to see Bluebells. There were also lots of Daffodils but they had just finished flowering and were looking rather sorry for themselves but the Bluebells looked rather nice.

We eventually came across the statue of Lord Holland, after whom the park is named, and the two ladies are, reading left to right, Marie and Amanda. They seem to be heading for me quite purposefully so it may be time to beat a hasty retreat.

There were a number of paths lined with Japanese Maples which looked very attractive.

We next found the Kyoto Garden which is a traditional Japanese garden created in 1991 by a team of Japanese gardeners sponsored by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in association with the Japan Festival of London. You can see Amanda is about to dive into the pond and Marie has turned her back in disgust.

We also saw Mrs Moorhen with three mini-moorhens looking for food along the edge of the pond.

All in all a very attractive setting including a waterfall.

Someway further on there was an area of formal plant beds which were very colourful and pretty and it's quite surprising what one can find in some of these plant beds.

Yes it's a Peacock trying to disguise itself as a tulip but not quite managing it. There were other peafowl around and some of them perched quite high in the trees. Holland Park is, apparently, the only London park to have peafowl.

We decided at this point that we'd seen most of what there was to see and made a dash from West London across to the east to Greenwich via Canary Wharf in Docklands. We stopped in Docklands to have lunch at the Turkish Hazev Restaurant which is the building on the right beyond the trees. Pretty yummy food, no, make that very yummy food and to be recommended.

After lunch we got back on the Docklands Light Railway and headed to Island Gardens Station where we walked to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and under the Thames to Greenwich and I won't even mention all the steps down and all the steps up.

It is possible to meet some very strange people down here as evidenced by the photograph (mentioning no names of course).

Once on the other side we visited the Painted hall in the Old Naval College which is already featured on the web site but I'll incude another photograph here.

Then across to the Chapel.

From here we climbed the hill up to the old observatory where we were treated to this view across the Old Naval College to Docklands beyond.

Time was running out and we had to make our way, by DLR and Underground, to Liverpool Street Station where we had a meal together. Then we caught our train home and Marie went back to her hotel to pack for her journey home tomorrow. All in all a very good day was had by all.
 

Red, White and Blue

Red, White and Blue

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No, not our national flag but our first day trip of 2010, yesterday.

Blue.

The sky. A few weeks ago we saw the last, I hope, of the exceptional cold weather and it warmed up a bit but brought with it grey skies and a generous helping of rain. Then suddenly this week we have clear skies which, of course, brings sunshine so we couldn't afford to waste it and went to Anglesey Abbey again but to see the winter garden this time.

We decided to cut across country in a, more or less, straight line because we wanted to go through Haverhill, in Suffolk, to deliver a rather old colour laptop computer to a computer museum there. The road to Haverhill meanders across the gently rolling landscape of Essex giving us views of a coloured patchwork of fields in varying shades of green and brown bathed in the bright morning sunshine. We had to take it a bit steady as this road is very winding and going too fast can cause Amanda to get travel sick.

Passing through villages such as Coggeshall, Earls Colne, Baythorne End, New England (bit of a detour?) and Sturmer we eventually crossed into Suffolk and arrived in Haverhill about an hour after leaving home. Having delivered said laptop we set off again through Great Wratting, turning North-West through Brinkley towards Lode, which is the little village next to Anglesey Abbey, and we arrived at Anglesey Abbey about an hour after leaving Haverhill.

We shouldn't have been surprised, but we were, to find that the very large car park and the overspill car park were almost full with few spaces left only 45 minutes after opening time. It's apparently extremly popular at this time of year.

Red.

Dogwood. From the entrance we headed for the Winter Garden. We had been here before, last year, at the beginning of July and, although quite pleasant, it wasn't the best time for the Winter Garden in particular. This time was different.

What spectacular colour there is along this path. This garden is cleverly laid out and as one progresses along the path so the character of the surroundings changes. The initial startling colour is provided by the different dogwoods either side of the path. Some bright red, some white, some a glowing orange and some yellow.

Later even the trees join in the colour spectacular.

We finally left the Winter Garden feeling a little dazed by the surfeit of colour.  smilies We were next headed for the Woodland Walk passing some nice winter views on the way such as this avenue guarded by what at first glance appears to be a couple of lions but which on closer inspection prove to have human heads

and this tree sheltering a beautiful patch of spring flowers much as a mother hen shelters her chicks.

White.

Snowdrops. We eventually started down the Woodland Walk, renowned for it's Snowdrops, and yes, there are rather a lot.

There were plenty of other visitors around and that person crouched to the left of the tree, trying to look like a Snowdrop, couldn't possibly be Amanda could it? Well, yes, of course it could. There were Snowdrops all along the Woodland Walk in varying numbers and it was quite a show.

Lunch.

By this time we thought that a spot of lunch wouldn't go amiss so we made our way back to the entrance and the restaurant. We often don't have lunch at National Trust properties' restaurants for two main reasons. Their prices always seem to be rather inflated and because, in spite of that, their restaurants always seem to be very popular. That popularity may stem from the fact that there is often nowhere else convenient to go but it does, at lunchtime, make them very, very busy. Looking into any of the restaurants at this time makes me think that if we do buy lunch is there actually going to be somewhere available to sit and eat it?

Anglesey Abbey at this time of year is extremely popular, with visitors wishing to see the Snowdrops, for about five weeks during the Snowdrop season. Consequently the restaurant was even busier than usual but we decided to have lunch anyway and joined the very long queue which actually extended out of the door of the restaurant into the entrance hall.

The staff behind the counter were working flat out and were serving people as fast as anyone could reasonably expect. However my first gripe is that the food at the counter is nowhere near as hot as it should be so that by the time one has collected one's meal then queued a little longer to get cups of tea or coffee and paid for it, collected some eating utensils, found a table and started to eat the food is only just warm. I don't like the feeling that the food has to be eaten quickly before it goes cold. We also had difficulty in finding cutlery that was actually clean. Overloading the dish-washer, perhaps, to keep up with demand?

The only vacant table we could find was covered in plates, cups and left-overs from the previous users which wasn't very pleasant and we were wondering what to do with all this stuff when a member of the restaurant staff did appear and cleared the things away. Whilst she was doing that someone else come up and asked her to do the same to another table. There are some large stands which are obviously meant for visitors to put their trays and crockery but there are no notices asking visitors to do this and some obviously do not. Really I think that the staff were a little thin on the ground but couldn't possibly work harder than they were doing but there should be more.

My second gripe was that the beef I had in my Beef Stew was the worst quality beef I've had in many years. More than half of the pieces of beef were so tough and rubbery that it was difficult to get a fork more than a little way in without pushing really hard. I did complain to the restaurant manager who, I have to say, didn't even try to argue but immediately offered to refund the cost of the meal which I accepted.

Overall lunch here was not a pleasant experience and I'm not sure I'd want to do it again under those conditions even if the food was good. Incidentally Amanda's main course was fine although she didn't have the same as me.

Lode.

After lunch we left Anglesey Abbey and went the very short distance to the village of Lode to see what it was like. It wasn't generally a particularly attractive village but it did have some very attractive spots.

Now there's a nice bit of thatch!

Once again it was time to return home. I wonder how soon our next trip will be? :cool:

Yes and No

Yes and No

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Back from our recent trip the answer to the question in the title of the previous posting is ‘Yes and No’.

We were lucky in that it was sunny but unlucky because it was uncomfortably hot and humid. We were lucky to visit Houghton, Hemingford Grey and Hemingford Abbots but St. Ives was a bit of a disappointment but I’ll start at the beginning.

Wednesday 1st July

We drove to Houghton which lies between Huntingdon and St. Ives in Huntingdonshire and we were there by 11:30 in the morning. We parked the car in the Three Horseshoes Inn’s car park and announced our arrival although we didn’t go up to our room.

We wanted to look round Houghton village before we set off on our planned walk because it’s a pretty village with attractive old buildings and chocolate box cottages. We rather liked this display of Hollyhocks which is on the other side of the village square from the Three Horseshoes. The village square is called “The Green” and although it may have been green at some time in the past it certainly isn’t now.

Opposite the Hollyhocks is what is known locally as the crooked house. You can just see some of the Hollyhocks on the extreme left of the picture peeping out from behind a house.

We wandered down Mill Lane (We were now starting the route of our planned walk) passing this chocolate box cottage on the way. It just had to have roses along the front didn’t it?

At the end of Mill Lane there is, wait for it, a mill. Owned by the National Trust it is still in working order and in a lovely setting. The water wheel must be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, we have ever seen. We have mentioned this mill briefly before on our way up to Stamford.

From the mill we followed the path across the River Great Ouse to Hemingford Abbots. Hemingford Abbots, like its neighbour Hemingford Grey, is a curious village. Very attractive and well kept with a number of old buildings but the old buildings are easily outnumbered by large, relatively modern and very expensive looking houses. Although we enjoyed looking at the designs of the modern houses we were more interested in the older style buildings.

That phrase ‘Chocolate Box’ springs to mind again – I don’t know why. We soon reached the centre of the village and this view of their pub, the Axe and Compass, with the church in the background.

As Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey are virtually touching it wasn’t long before we were on the outskirts of Hemingford Grey.

It didn’t take long to reach the centre of the village which is where this next picture was taken and the suspicious looking person lurking in the shadows is, of course, Amanda. On a day like this lurking in the shadows is the best place to be – it was sweltering!

Both the Hemingfords are close to the River Great Ouse and our path took us alongside the river on our way to Hemingford Grey Meadow with St. Ives beyond.

We weren’t really looking forward to the next section which would involve crossing the rather large Hemingford Grey Meadow because we thought that there may be no shade in which to to shelter for some time. One of the churches in St. Ives can be seen on the other side of the meadow together with a few other buildings.

Luckily there was a small water channel, running down one side of the meadow, which was lined with shrubs and trees and we were able to spend short periods going through shade.

St. Ives is an old town but as we approached all we could see on the outskirts were modern buildings – not an old building in sight. We entered the town near the old bridge and having soon passed the modern additions we arrived at the waterside.

This picture was taken from the old bridge which is unusual in that it has a small chapel in the centre which you can see here on the right as we cross the bridge into the main part of the town.

There was a tea shop on the other side with a river terrace where we stopped for a much needed drink and from where I took this photograph of the 15th century bridge.

The area around the bridge and river is very nice but the rest of the town has nothing for the tourist. It’s not an unpleasant place but just little else of interest to see. We weren’t particularly pleased after walking all that way on a very hot and humid day especially as we now had to walk back but that’s the luck of the draw.

We arrived back at the inn in time for a short rest, a shower and then dinner. According to my pedometer we walked exactly 11 miles today.

Thursday 2nd July

After our St. Ives experience we decided to drive through Huntingdon first to assess the place and didn’t really see much there of interest either so drove on to Godmanchester. That didn’t hold our interest either so it was on to Plan B.

We pass close to Cambridge on our route to and from Houghton so we had thought that if we had time, which we now have, we might vist Anglesey Abbey. Now you may think that that would be a gargantuan detour but Anglesey Abbey is not on Anglesey in North Wales it is just a few miles north of Cambridge and is owned by the National Trust.

So it was that we arrived at Anglesey Abbey and gardens just as it was about to open at 10:30 AM. Walking through the gardens we had a bit of a surprise when we came upon this grove of trees.

Each one of those tree trunks is silvery white and the bark is quite hard and shiny. They are a form of Silver Birch which come from the Chinese side of the Himalaya. They gave a really ethereal atmosphere like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

A little further on we arrived at Lode Mill which is a rather cute little watermill and is now part of Anglesey Abbey grounds. We were going to have a look round the inside but the mill wasn’t open today because of a shortage of volunteers. The mill site is described in the Domesday Book although the building will have been replaced, possibly a number of times, since then.

From the mill we found our way to the Herbaceous Garden. Now that’s what I call a herbaceous border and it goes all the way round this large area. Keep that lot clear of weeds if you can.

After leaving the Herbaceous Garden we followed a not so obvious path and eventually stumbled upon the house. Even with a plan of the garden showing the paths it’s easy to get slightly lost in this place. Not a bad country cottage is it? Although the name of the property is Anglesey Abbey it is actually a country house.

Walking past the house, through the Rose Garden, we managed to find the Formal Garden where Amanda took this picture of me trying to run off with one of the stone vases. This may be a formal garden but dress is informal.

The gardens are very large covering around 114 acres most of which is parkland like this.

There is a lot that we didn’t see but Anglesey Abbey is only about an hours drive from us so we will probably return at different times of the year to see the changes.

That was the end of our current trip.

  • Like the curate’s egg it was good in parts.
  • Better luck next time
  • Can’t win ’em all.

You know the sort of thing. :mrgreen: