There and Back

Just before the `lock down` due to the Coronavirus, I managed an hour in this magnificent church, just off Christchurch Mansion and park. Although the interior has been much modified by our predecessors, along with most in England I am afraid, there are still many feature worth recording and admiring. Firstly, the magnificent exterior. The church sits on St Margaret's Plain, tucked into a corner of Christchurch Park. The park was the site of the Augustinian Priory, dedicated to Holy Trinity but frequently referred to in old documents as Christchurch.  One of the buildings opposite the church, now an estate agent, is part of the former monastery range, and its beams are full of delightful carvings. View from the nave toward the chancel and sanctuary. St Margaret has the best nave roof in Ipswich, possible one of the best in all Suffolk. It is a fine double-hammer beam affair, resplendent with (albeit restored) original colouring. The angels were...

Suffolk Professional Photographer, Gill Moon, holds monthly walks around areas of her `home turf` in Suffolk. These are free! and are really worth participating in. This one was entitled ` Felixstowe Ferry Scavenger Hunt` and there were about 14 of us taking part. Gill gives us ideas and concepts to photograph while sauntering around a particular area, with lots of helpful advice `to boot`. Gill has a web site well worth looking at, and where you will find details of all her courses, paid and unpaid, as well as examples of her work.. Having never visited this area of Felixstowe before, we were fascinated by some of the boats being lived in on the estuary. Such as below. Eccentric might be the word! This was called POTAMUS - look! two hippo. Between 1805 and 1812 eight Martello Towers were built on the Felixstowe Peninsula as a defence against a possible invasion by Napoleon's forces. These squat, ovoid-shaped brick-built towers were immensely st...