Pauline had long held a wish to visit Suffolk and last week we did just that. We drove as far as Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire where we once lived for four years. A friend and former neighbour was our host for the night. Next day we continued via Ely to Suffolk. Stopping in Ely for about an hour, I was able to show Pauline what I had once seen in 1971, the cathedral. On that earlier occasion I remember the nave was completely clear of all seats and the great organ was being tuned. On this day I truly learned how deep a note the organ could create!
Today the chairs were all out and the east end of the cathedral was roped off whilst a Bollywood film was shot! However, we were able to gaze at the beautiful octagon tower with all its decoration. It was a marvellous scene. Then we returned to the car and continued to make our way to Suffolk. So that we did not arrive before 4.00pm as per the rules at our holiday cottage in Friston, we drove down to Aldeburgh where we strolled along the top of the shingle beach. Then we completed our journey as we arrived at our home for the next seven days.
In the cottage we found various leaflets telling us what Suffolk had to offer and this resulted in the following day with a visit to Orford, a short distance away. This tiny river port cum boating haven delighted us and we made plans to return before the end of our stay. The following day the weather was very doubtful as we arrived at Sutton Hoo just outside Woodbridge. The weather prevented our taking a guided tour round the many burial mounds there so we restricted our efforts within the confines of the exhibition centre run by the National Trust. It was fascinating to see photos of the famous ship burial discovered on the outbreak of war in 1939.
On the following day we drove to Great Yarmouth and Gorleston in Norfolk so that I could take pictures of the houses that were once occupied by members of my family and whom I had never met. Apart from one elusive family member no others appear to be in existence. The visit gave us the chance to visit the two houses preserved down by the docks. In previous days there was a huge community in Great Yarmouth known as "The Rows" with tiny terraced houses built close to each other. Some very interesting architectural features had been preserved and we could see something of life when this vibrant community was extant.
Suffolk was the focus of our stay and so the rest of our times we spent discovering many extremely attractive old towns and villages. I have never seen so many Tudor framed houses before. One very interesting village used to be virtually a city until a violent storm in the 14th century dragged many tons of gravel to close up its harbour and eroded the cliffs so that a huge part of the city/town fell into the sea. The village is Dunwich where a local museum exists to tell the story of how Old Dunwich fell into the sea over the centuries. We bought a fascinating and very informative DVD that told how it had all happened.
We walked along the beach at Dunwich and took some lovely photos of the fishing boats pulled up the shingle bank above the sandy beach. Southwold was included on our itinerary as well as many other river and coast towns and villages.
But the most beautiful place was Flatford Mill on the River Stour. This, of course, was where John Constable painted a number of lovely landscapes. Interestingly, Flatford Mill was owned at that time by Constable's father. In the famous picture, the Haywain, stands a cottage known as Willy Bott's Cottage. It is still there and you can see it in the photo at the head of this blog. There is still a lock on the river which is really a navigation at this point but the lock is a new one and located in another place. the dry dock where Constable painted the boat building work is still there and can still be flooded and emptied as previously. The mill is still there, of course, and is quite a large building.
The River Stour Trust operate an electric launch along this stretch of the river and we could not resist a sail in it. we were very interested in the local wild life we could see. Lots of damsel flies flashed their blue bodies like tiny kingfishers as they flitted across the boat. We heard from the helmsman how the river bank was worn down with cattle arriving to drink the water. He told us that at the height of the tourist season hey sometimes failed to take the launch the full distance because so many people were our in the hired rowing boats.
As with our trip to Great Yarmouth we made another visit to Norfolk as we went to see Swaffham where the TV mystery film, Kingdom, is made. After this I got my treat by being able to travel to Thetford and visit Grimes Graves which is the name of a prehistoric flint mine under the care of English heritage. A number of years ago I did a year's course in Archaeology in which we studied prehistory. It included information about these flint mines. I was therefore fascinated to climb down the 32 rung ladder into the bottom of the shaft to see what the real thing looked like.
All in all we had a most amazing time exploring East Anglia and when we got back we had many photos to be loaded onto my PC. Nopw we can look back on a wonderful holiday and look forward to our next holiday in August when we go to Greece for three weeks.
