1 July: Ely, Cambridge and Anglesey

Various places in South Suffolk and Deepest North (shouldn't that be Norf?)  Essex.  May involve mangel-wurzels!!

Before getting to the events of the day I will reflect on a few matters about driving in this fine country.

1. Many of the lay-bys and parking areas on major roads have a van parked in them selling burgers and the such like. Paul commented that he finds these really useful for grabbing a bite when on a twitch. Lorry drivers really love them, especially when the alternative is the Golden Arches!
2. In the forest of Thetford Chase there were rumble strips (judder bars for the NZ readers) in places where I could see no reason for them. Apparently the rationale for this was that the noise is not to wake up sleepy drivers but to warn nearby deer of the presence of a car.
3. In each case where we have gone to meet someone they have given detailed directions for how to get there. Today I realised that this was reminding me of how one used to go in Tanzania. Of course in the UK it would be impossible to produce a village level street directory (while in Australia this is quite feasible at least within a State).
4. Most of the major roads in the areas we have visited have been quite reasonable roads. An exception is a few miles of the A11 south of Thetford where a major intersection is controlled by traffic lights. This caused a mile (or more)tailback in each direction today.
5. Every day in every way, we find a new contender for the crappiest road signs in the UK. I hope no-one beats Cambridge's example. (Note from the future: Cambridge is wonderful compared to Bath.)  There was no indication how to get from the centre of town to the A14: if you didn't want to go to the M11 then Cambridge's traffic engineers were not interested in you!
6. There were still a few optimistic souls with St. George's cross flags on their cars: presumably they are thinking of 2014. All the bedsheet sized flags had gone from upper windows.

I will also comment on the number of instances of communities rejecting developments in their 'hood. One place we drove had signs up saying “No more houses in ...” (I can't remember where this was) and one we drove through on the way to the Show had many signs opposing a gravel pit/landfill site in their village. Today I noticed a village near Ely opposing a marina on a nearby lake. Good on them!!

Our month began with yet another blat down the A11 in this case going on through the 2-lane referred to above to Wicken Fen, a Reserve run by the National Trust preserving an area of fen. It was pretty windy when we were there so the birds were not great. Indeed, judging by what was written in their sightings book they rarely are (or the gun birders don't go there). It is apparently top in Winter!

We then moved on to Ely where we went to the cathedral. Apart from getting kicked out before we got in due to a fire alarm it was as magnificent as I recall from our visit in 1979. A huge nave with magnificent stained glass and painted ceilings. Many levels of round Norman arches and on and on and on! Truly marvellous. (One advantage of the fire alarm was that we didn't have to share the Cathedral with about 60 ragazzi (ie teenage Italian students))


Then into Cambridge where Frances went to the Kings College Chapel and I to the library to use the internet.


The library was in the Grand Arcade (despite the twee name it was just a modern shopping centre with a modern library in it). I was vaguely annoyed that it took the dude on the desk 15 minutes to register me as a user of their system: I'd rather have paid a quid in a commercial cafe, but have not so far found one, possibly because the Council system is so convenient if you are a resident.


Frances reported three highlights from Kings College:

• the organist playing for the last 20 minutes she was in there;
• the architecture; and
• hearing that the reason the stained glass survived the WWII was because the College removed all the glass before the hostilities. This was significant because the previous time we visited the Chapel (1979) some guy who claimed to be a mathematician claimed it survived because it imploded when a bomb landed. We thought at the time he was simply pyssed, but now we know he was full of something other than alcohol!

She was also impressed to note that one of the Fellows of Kings who died in WWI was Rupert Brooke.

As it was a Cambridge 'Open Day' to recruit freshers, we found we could get into Trinity College for a snuffle round. It reminded me of Wye College (but the buildings at Wye were a bit older).


With some luck and great annoyance we found our way out of Cambridge and about 10 miles east to Anglesey Abbey. This is an Abbey that seems to have been restored twice, most recently by Lord Fairhaven, and subsequently given by the third Lord Fairhaven to the National Trust. This family seem to have been the recipients of most of the wealth associated with Esso (on the mothers side) and venture capitalism in the US by an expatriate Pom on the fathers side. There has then been a period of intense Anglophilia leading to a peerage.

The place was really excellent, with huge old rooms in the old part of the house and really good furnishings throughout. There were some Country Life magazines scattered about, one of which had the headline 'Fighting the wood pigeon menace'. This was in 1961 and the battle goes on! My noting the headline caused one of the volunteers to strike up a conversation with me, further sparked by her noting my Greene King IPA t-shirt as her husband had been a master brewer with that firm.


One of the upper rooms had a range of paintings by Charles Collins. These were of birds and most unusually for the time had the birds in live positions rather than dead in (very) still lifes. Some of his names seem strange now: the weirdest was beam-bird for spotted flycatcher!

The gardens (managed by 7 gardeners, so I hope the gift included some maintenance fees) were both excellently laid out and very well presented. This was the first 'house' on this trip that I have thought really excellent. At 10 quid a head for entry it should have been!


We tried again to get a meal at a pub in Wymondham but this one, while open didn't do evening meals on Thursday. So we got some fish and chips (rather good too) across the road and went home!