Travels in East Anglia

This area is packed full of history. It includes the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. It was home of Queen Boudicca and the Iceni who fought the Roman invasion. It was also the last holdout of the Saxons against the Normans. We are by nature, not a people easily conquered. That being said, this area hosts many historic ruins (Bury St Edmonds and Castle Rising)lovely churches (Norwich and Ely) the college town of Cambridge, Caithness Glass Works in Kings Lynn, and loads of what I refer to as BIG Houses. Since this is our 4th visit to this area we didn't do some of the things I mentioned on this particular trip but they are things that you may want to do on your trip. If you want to do a Royal tour you might want to include Sandringham, Castle Rising (where Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, spent her last years) and/or Kings Lynn (which has a lovely medieval center) just to suggest a few.

Quick Tips:

This area has an extensive sea coast and you certainly can have a summer vacation here. There is a famous picture of Princess Diana walking along the coast near the Sandringham Estate. We were treated to wonderful views as we drove from Sandringham to Holkham Hall on a sunny September day. If you choose to spend a day in Cambridge there are commuter parking lots with bus service that make getting in much easier. One thing to keep in mind is that most of the towns were built before cars and the streets are narrow and not designed for car traffic. Driving on the left poses its own set of problems that you might not want to exacerbate by driving in a busy town.

Best Way To Get Around:

We always rent a car, but we are comfortable with driving in England (after 14 trips). If you are in doubt you might want to take advantage of the excellent train and bus system that England offers. The advantage of driving is that you can get out to the more remote places. If you decide to drive, be prepared to get lost and enjoy the experience. Some of the roads are so narrow that if you meet another car somebody is going to have to back up. We love it, where else can you see partridges walking along the road or enjoy the sheep up close and personal. And you will want to walk, walk, walk. There are charming villages, country lanes, weekly markets and vast estate gardens to explore. Make sure to bring comfortable shoes and note that if you are taking the bus it may not drop you right at the door of the place you want to visit.

Lesley Honnor and her husband John do a wonderful job of making you feel welcome. This is the third time we have stayed here and we love it. This time we rented her whole house for 5 days. Lesley welcomes you to her home with cake and tea on your first day and since our friends had a separate car and a year-old grandson, they asked to be allowed to arrive straight from Gatwick and Lesley was very accomadating. Not only did she welcome them with tea in the garden but she provided a high chair and John who has a small gauge railroad on the property gave them all a ride on his train. We, unfortunately, only arrived in time for dinner.

Because she knows me, Lesley agreed to cook dinner for us the night of our arrival and one other night during our stay. That first night she fed us a chicken stew with roasted potatoes, 3 vegetables, fresh melon as a starter and 2 pies: blackberry-apple and lemon merangue. Excellent.

Pipwell Manor has 4 bedrooms, all with private bathrooms. Three are en suite and one is in the hall. Three rooms have double beds or queen beds and one has twin beds. They are all decorated in the Laura Ashely style. The rooms have comforatble mattresses and every amentity that you might need, including a blow dryer and a basket of toiletries. There are large closets and shelves for storage. One of the rooms has a tub, the rest have showers. There is a guest parlor with a tv and loads of books and magazines and 2 very comforable couches as well as chairs. We have spent many cozy evenings in front of the fireplace there. This is one of our favorite places to stay and Lesley is certainly one of the reasons herself.

The breakfast here is to die for. You can have eggs everyday if you like with the typical fry (bacon, tomatoes, toast) or scrambled with any or all the additions. There are homemade jellies and fresh fruit. One day there was a bowl of stewed rhubarb - delicious. There are cereals, bread, toast (white and whole grain) juice and all the coffee and tea we could drink. We rarely needed to eat until 2 or 3 after this breakfast. Lesley serves between 8 and 9 so we usually stumbled down at about 8:30 to find our other friends mid-meal.

Staying at Pipwell Manor is like staying with a wonderful friend who is also a great cook. You will want to return again and again.

After our visit to the private apartment we were famished. It was about 2pm which is 9 am EST. We had last eaten on the plane at about 4 am British time. One of the hardest adjustments is to get on the right eating schedule. They fed us breakfast on the plane but our bodies were wanting to sleep so we didn't eat what they gave us. Now we were running on empty. This is a simple restaurant that offers English food, jacket potatoes, sausage rolls, Cornish pastries, toasted sandwiches and soup and the very English Ploughman's which is ham, cheese, bread and pickled onions. Al and I had mushroom soup which came with nice crisp bread and butter. It had a rich brown broth but was not milk based. It was chuck full of mushrooms. Our friend Joe had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich which took about 10 minutes to deliver. This is cafeteria-style so you can appreciate why I am commenting on the 10 minute wait. He enjoyed it when it arrived so I guess the wait was worth it. I finished up my meal with a cup of tea and a huge shortbread cookie. Joe had strawberries and clotted cream which I wish I had seen. Anyway, to 3 very hungry and tired tourists this was a welcome stop. It is simple cooking, not gourmet by any strech of the imagination, but since we were a captive audience with no other choices nearby, we were happy to find it here.

UPDATE 2008-CLOSED
This little gem caught us totally by suprise. Lesley, at Pipwell Manor, always supplies us with a map with restaurants marked out on it that she recommends and we decided to try this one which she said served good, honest food.

The Bull's Neck is very much a pub in the stucco and black-wood style. We were a little shy about going in because pubs are often smoky and since they are usually filled with locals, it's a bit nerve-wracking to just walk in. It was a Wednesday night at about 8pm and the bar area had only one table with people sitting. I have learned from experience that you need to order at the bar so I walked up and talked to the bar maid and she gave us menus. We ordered our starters and our entree and some lager which she poured right out and we took our seats at a small table. It didn't take long for the people at the next table to notice our accent and ask us if we were from the States, as this was pre Sept. 11, we talked about lots of things but not terrorism. Within a couple of minutes a woman came out from a door at the end of the room and led them into the back room. It was a beautiful, smokefree , dining room. We were next and couldn't wait to join them. There are about 6 tables in the dining room and on this night 3 of them were occupied. We tried to get a reservation for Friday night but couldn't - they had a large party booked.

Our starters were potato skins with a dill sauce and fried garlic mushrooms with cheese. Both were excellent. The mushrooms just oozed cheese and garlic and were a perfect texture and the dill sauce was picant over crispy potatoes.

In spite of mad cow, Al and Joe had roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. A platter with 2 kinds of potatoes and 3 vegetables was served along side, and whoever accused the Bristish of over-cooking their vegetables never ate here. They were perfect - bright green broccoli, orange carrots and tender cauliflower with delicious baby roasted potatoes. I, being a lover of Indian food, had chicken curry - I loved it and it cleared my sinuses too.

As if the meal hadn't been good enough, the dessert cabinet was calling me from across the room. Everything in it looked great, it was a hard choice. Joe and I went for the raspberry and apple tart and Al had the bread and butter pudding. We had heavy cream on ours and he had custard on his. This has to be sinful. It was that good. We were totally charmed by our waitress Emma and I think she enjoyed us as well. I wish we could have gotten back but oh well, there is always next time.

Now first I must say that this pub is within walking distance from Pipwell Manor and is not on Lesley's list of places to eat. That having been said, I must comment that the host, Steve Goodison, is exactly what you would expect a publican to be like. He made friends with our friends on their first afternoon when they went off in search of lunch and he made up sandwiches for them even though the pub wasn't serving food at that time of day and he remembered them when we came in a couple of nights later. He chatted with us the entire time we were in the pub as he is a great fan of America and often visits here.

In spite of the warm welcome, this is a smoking pub and we all reeked when we left and felt as if we would never get away from the smell. The food was just what we expected - pub grub. I had scampi and fries which in pub food terms has nothing to do with pasta, it's fried small shrimp. It was no better, no worse than I expected. Al had lasagna, a brave choice I thought, and he enjoyed it even if it was unlike what he expected. It didn't really have any sauce. Joe had a safe choice, gammon steak which in American terms is ham steak. Very passable. The lager was cold and the welcome was warm. The dessert was hot Belgian Apple Pie and it was not made by Steve's wife Val, it tasted store-bought but what the heck, this was a great chance to spend an evening with the locals and just chat. Give it a go.

It was about 4:30pm by the time we finally got to the restaurant after a full day. We spent the morning driving from Pipwell Manor to Sudbury to visit the Gainsborough House and then came to Ickworth about 2pm, with a 2 hour visit and half hour in the gift shop we were ready for a break.

Oh, how I love the English. They know what a weary person needs. A cream tea. They offered a choice of 3 scones, plain, with raisins or savory. This is served with a pot of hot tea, clotted cream and jam. It was delicious and on a chilly rainy day nothing warms the soul like a pot of tea.

The restaurant offers many other things earlier in the day but since we were only half hour short of closing time, the only things available were the cream tea, other soft drinks and some cookies and cakes. Whatever. It was perfect and not too expensive.

The food service was cafeteria style. You grab a tray, pick your scone and tell them what beverage you prefer. The tables are all wooden and the floors were tile, it looks like this could have been the former kitchens of the house. The table settings were cheery and all the pottery was crisp white. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

This is the house where Thomas Gainsborough was born. He lived here with his parents until he went to London when he was 13. It has been turned into a museum dedicated to his life and it also houses a very nice collection of his works and some personal items of his. None of the furnishings, however, are original to the house, they are just to set the atmosphere and are from the correct time period.

Everyone here is very friendly. When I asked to take pictures, Linda Bleksley who was working in the gift shop got the curator for me and he gave me permission as long as I didn't feature the paintings. I was very careful not to, as this was a great privelege.

We had the funniest experience on our whole trip here at the Gainsborough house. When we were in the gift shop Linda told us to make sure we tried the mulberries in the garden as there is a 300-year old tree there and some of the fruit was still on the tree. She warned us to make sure we ate dark fruit otherwise it would be sour. Well we've never seen a mulberry in our lives so we wandered out to the garden in search of one. We found some round red things that looked like crab apples so Joe and I took a little nibble of a couple of them. I then began a short conversation with a woman who was eating her lunch in the garden and she asked me why we were eating the rose hips. Rose hips, we thought they were mulberries, she looked at us like we were crazy and pointed out a large tree across the garden. That is the mulberry tree. We spit the rose hips out pretty fast let me tell you. Don't worry she told us they are high in vitamin C. Red faced, we went over to try the mulberries, and all we need to do now is say rose hips and we get silly laughing.

There was a small case in the hall with personal items a snuff box with his initials, a pocket watch, a sword stick.

One of the portraits in the house is of a boy and it is believed to be the earliest portrait he painted. There are also two pictures, one of a boy and one of a girl that were originally one picture, you can see her dress in the bottom of his picture. There are more of his paintings on display here than anywhere else in the world.

It is an amazing experience to be able to see the artist's work in a venue that is of the period he was painting in. Come here to get a feel for what his world was like and to take a brief step back in time.

Admission is 3 pounds. The house is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10-5pm. Sunday 2-5.

Peterborough Cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter, Paul and Andrew. There has been a house of worship on this site for over 1300 years. A monastic church was founded here by Peada, King of Mercia in 655 AD. It was destroyed by the Danes in the 9th century . It was rebuilt and then destroyed by fire. The present building was begun in 1116 and consecrated in 1238. It is one of the finest Norman buildings in England. When Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries, he chose to preserve this church and raise it to the status of a cathedral in 1541. Four years previously his former queen, Katherine of Aragon, was buried here. This is one of the main reasons we and many other tourist want to visit here, to pay our respects to this queen who refused to bend to the will of her lusty husband. Mary Queen of Scots was also briefly buried here. During the civil war, the stained glass windows were destroyed by Cromwell's men but some fragments were collected and put into the window in the Apse.

Among the church treasures is an illuminated psalter called the Ramsey Psalter. There is also a brass lectern one of only 40 medieval lecterns to survive in England. It is a particularly fine one given by Abbot William Ramsey (1471-1496).

Another of the items that you will want to find in the cathedral is the Hedda or Monks Stone. It is a famous Saxon sculpture from the 8th century.

The wonderful facade and spires of this magnificent Cathedral dominate the skyline of Peterborough. The portico has been described as the "most magnificent in Christendom."

In order to take pictures in the Cathedral, I had to buy a photo permit. There is no entrance fee but donations are expected. There is a small gift shop in the Cathedral and a larger one outside.

This is still the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough and an active Anglican Church. There are daily services and you can come and hear evensong every day of the week.

If you are need of a snack there is a cafe within the Cathedral Precincts called Beckets. We didn't stop in but I can tell you that some delicious smells were emanating from it's general direction.

Woburn Abbey has been the home of the Dukes of Bedford for nearly 400 years. The current Duke does not live here, he lives in France. However, his son, the Marquis of Tavistock, and his family do make Woburn their home. We were interested in seeing 2 Gainsborough landscapes that are in the private family rooms so we e-mailed ahead and were granted permission to see them. Lavinia was very gracious in taking us in and talking extensively about them and the on-going preservation and dispaly of the Duke's magnificent art collection.

We also were lucky to be visiting on a day when the breakfast room was open to the public. It has 8 portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds including a self-portrait. You will notice that I have no interior pictures as photography was not allowed (I did sneak a few in the vault) but I didn't want to jeapordize our visit to the private apartment.

This is a very large house but it retains the feeling of a family home with the inclusion of family pictures on tables and mantles.

The Canaletto Room is unbelievable. It is a magnificent blend of red, white and gold. The 21 pictures are spotlighted in a way that shows them to perfection. The long windows in this room overlook the private gardens on one side and the lake on the other.

There is a delightful portrait in the Hall of Lady Georgina (Byng) Russell. She was too lively to fit the mold of the ususal Duchess of Bedford and received critisism for her lack of decorum. It didn't seem to bother her a bit.

In the long Tudor gallery, you can get a history lesson in portraits of the Tudor dynasty. There is a famous painting of Queen Elizabeth I by George Gower where she has her hand on a globe, to her left is Jane Seymour and above Jane, Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor (his wife). Also above Elizabeth are Edward VI and a young Queen Mary.

In the vaults there are cases of Meissen, Japanese porcelein and a magnifient Sevres set with the Vincennes Blue color. There are also rooms of silver which are mind boggeling and gold plate dinner serving pieces.

By now a case of lovely minatures seems to be a lovely relief from all the oppulence. The minatures include a beatiful portrait of Lady Georgina as a child, Napoleon, Elizabeth Keppel and Rachel Wroithesy.

The tour takes you up and down stairs several times. If you are not able to do this then you will be unable to visit here.

There is a restaurant here as well as a very upscale Antique Center and 2 gift shops.

Cost of entry is 7 pounds and the headphone tour is an additional pound. It is covered on the Great British Heritage Pass. The house is open from April to Sept 30 everyday 11am-5pm. It is open on weekends from January 1-March 25 and October 6-28th.

This is one of several houses that the Queen of England owns personally. It is where the Royal Family spends the Christmas holiday and the Queen makes her Christmas Address from here.

The house was originally built by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. They lived here most of the time (I think he wanted to get away from his mother, Victoria).

We entered the house through an entrance way that has an old scale in it. Guests used to be weighted when they came to visit, and then again when they left. Your guests were supposed to gain weight while they were visiting. I figure it was also a way to discourage people from pilfering the silver.

The first room we visited was a very comfortable room with a piano, lots of family pictures, couches with pillows, a tv and vcr. It looks like most of our family rooms just a bit larger and grander. It has wonderful lighting from the wall of windows and you can imagine the family reading here.

After going through a hall filled with Oriental armour, we entered some beautiful drawing rooms. There are cases here displaying Queen Alexandra's jade collection which takes up several cases. There is also a case filled with small Faberge items and another filled with fans. There is a room divider used as a portable picture gallery to display photos of a shooting party from long ago.

In the dining room, the table is set as if it were 1894. There is a sample menu they had at least 10 courses - 2 menus have 14 courses. Nowadays they still use this room but they limit themselves to 3 or 4 courses. There is even a Grand National Trophy from 1900 won by the Prince of Wales horse. The last room we visited was filled with canine pictures. The Royal family have been real dog lovers for several generations. They lost me here, I like my dog but looking at paintings of other peoples dogs is like watching videos of someone else's vacation. Boring!!!!

The cost of entry is 6 pounds. It is open April 14-July 17 and August 1-October 28 11am-4:45pm.

There is a museum, gardens, a great gift shop and a restaurant.

In a country of countless country houses, Ickworth House stands out for its unique architechture. It is built in the Italianate style with a central rotunda and 2 curved wings going off it. As you visit the rooms on the Rotunda the uniqueness of the curved exterior walls is a delight to the eye and yet still a suprise as you move room to room. Ickworth was constructed by the Earl Bishop, Frederick, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. The family name of the Earls of Bristol was Hervey. The house is not currently in the possession of the family, it belongs to the National Trust and one wing is slated to become an ultra luxury hotel.

Construction on Ickworth House began in 1795, and the Earl Bishop viewed it as more of a museum than a comfortable home. His extensive art, silver and furniture collections is now on display in the house.

The first room you visit is the Dining Room - it has 6 large silver candleabra, on the right hand wall is a lovely picture of the Hervey Sisters in identical white dresses with blue sashes.

The library has 4 pillars. They are ground marble over a wood frame and hollow. The silk on the curtains and couches is made in Sudbury. There is a very nice painting by Benjamin West of the death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham.

The Drawing Room has a beautiful portrait of Lady Elizabeth Foster by Angelika Kaufman and a portrait of the Earl Bishop by Viger Lebrun. The chandeliers in this room were made in Birmingham. A man came with scroll designs and stood on a stool so they could pick which one looked best in each room.

The Pompeian Room has several gorgeous tables made of mosaic and marble from tombs along the Appian Way in Rome. The ceiling of the room is a dome, amazing.

When you first go upstairs there is a beautiful display of the fan collection of the 3rd Marchioness of Bristol. Some of the fans are from as early as the 18th century.

One of the bedrooms has a beautiful and unusual Ventitian Murano Glass chandelier. It is very colorful and the guide in that room said that people seem to either love or hate it, with most women loving it. Me too.

The Museum Room housed some of the massive silver collection, (a silver baby rattle and a huge wine cistern were among my favorities) as well as cases of miniatures (a beatiful one of Georgiana Devonshire and Elizabeth Foster, who shared the love of the Duke of Devonshire and yet remained close friends), snuffboxes and perfume bottles.

We ended our tour with a visit to the gift shop and a bit of play acting which my pictures will show.

Open May-Oct daily except Monday and Thursday 1-5pm. 5.7 pounds entrance. On the Great British Heritage Pass.

This is a pass that you may purchase before you go to Great Britain. It is available online as well as from Britrail, which is where I ordered it, 1-877-677-1066. The cost of the pass depends on the length of time it can be used.

2005 Prices

4 consecutive days- $50
7 consecutive days- $75
15 consecutive days- $95
1 month- $130

These prices do not include a $10 handling fee. It is mailed to you before you leave, so order it early enough. There is an extra charge for 2 day delivery. You can also buy your pass once you get to Britain.

With your pass, you are given a gazetteer showing you all the properties that you can visit free with your pass. Actually, you need to ask if you don't see something in the gazateer - we didn't find Ascot House in the book and yet it is a national trust property and we did get to use our pass there. They told us we were the first American visitors to use the pass this year and I guess that's why - 'cause it isn't listed.

Here are just a few of the places that are on the list:

Woburn Abbey

Chatsworth

Blenheim

Warwick Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Hampton Court

Waddesdon Manor

Windsor Castle

Syon House

Harewood House

Washington Old Hall

Lincoln Castle

Belvoir Castle

Ickworth House- Park and Garden,

Shakespeare's Birthplace

Mary Arden's House

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Ragley Hall

Wrest Park Gardens

All in all, over 600 places are open to visitors for free with the pass. With the price of several places in excess of 10 pounds, you can see that it would not take long for the pass to pay for itself.

We have gotten it several times and what it does is send us to visit places that perhaps we would have passed up if we had to pay for them and some of them have turned out to be real favorites with us.