There and Back

This was a place we were looking forward to seeing. It was in fact really close by to where we were staying. According to the RSPB site:  Blessed with a variety of freshwater habitats, Frampton Marsh provides close views of the abundant birdlife of The Wash - the biggest bay in England. Avocets, Redshanks and Skylarks can all be seen in summer, with thousands of ducks gathering on the freshwater scrapes in winter. This is a landscape surrounded by waters teeming with life. The reserve is set against the shore of The Wash, the UK’s most important estuary for birds. Explore freshwater wetlands, reedbeds, wet grasslands and large shallow pools known as scrapes. Here a few images to remember the day. A gathering of Black Tailed Godwits Black -tailed Godwits in flight Sedge Warbler Reed Bunting Sand Martins Spoonbills Young Shelduck We followed some of the trails and photographed some of the birds, but of course you need to visit a few times at different time of the year to appreciate t...

The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre is a family run museum and was set up in 1989. It is now widely seen as a living memorial to the 55,573 men of Bomber Command who lost their lives during WW2. It holds two of the rarest aircraft, an Avro Lancaster Bomber MKVII and DH Mosquito NFII, in its collection along with many wartime vehicles including a Ford WOT1 Crew Bus, the only one of its kind in existence. The owners feel that Bomber Command has never been given the recognition that it deserves and they see it as their job to educate both old and young as to the acts of heroism and dedication shown by Bomber Command throughout the Second World War.  The average age of air crew, each man a volunteer, was 22 and not even 1 in 4 completed their first tour of 30 operations, most definitely a debt that we cannot repay but also a debt that should not be forgotten. The Heritage Centre is based on the old wartime airfield of RAF East Kirkby and retains the original 1940's Control Tower ...

Today we visited the city of Lincoln. We did not have a general exploration in mind, but had set the Cathedral as our main choice. So we parked on the outskirts at a `park and ride` and rode into the bus station near the center of the city. From there we walked through part of the town, across the River Witham, and past the castle up to the cathedral. So really, my view of Lincoln was on this route only, but still a great place to see. This bold and striking sculpture, called  Empowerment  spans the river Witham in the centre of Lincoln. It takes its inspiration from turbine blades, symbolic of the rich engineering heritage of the city. The turbine blades transform into dynamic figures that reach out to empower one another, just as the blades empower one another within the turbine. Moving along beside the river we came to  High Bridge , also known as the Glory Hole, which carries the High Street across the River Witham. Apparently, it is the oldest bridge in the United Ki...

Just a few minutes away from our village of Kirton is the town of Boston, one of our main destinations for this holiday. The town is famous for having possible the largest parish church in the UK - The Stump, as it known. It`s actually St Botolphs. It has been referred to as "Boston Stump" since it was constructed. The current main church building was started around the year 1309. The main body of the church was complete by 1390, but at that time the church had no tower. The famous tower was built in stages between 1425 and completed by 1510. It rises to a height of 272 feet and is topped by a superb octagonal lantern, somewhat reminiscent of that at Ely Cathedral. The effect of the tower architecture is breath-taking at first viewing. Whenever you are near Boston, and obviouly while you are in the town, the church dominates the skyline - it is magnificent. So to start with, here are a few images of the beautiful building. A couple of riverside image of the Stump As you can s...

Kirton is a small town just south of Boston in Lincolnshire, where we had our holiday accomodation for a week while we explored around Boston. Kirton was one of the first Royal centres for the Saxon kingdom established after the Romans left in the fourth century. It was also a major administrative centre for the Holland district of Lincolnshire in the seventeenth century. One prominent figure in village life was farmer and philanthropist William Dennis. He was benefactor of the Town Hall (below), which was built in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of George V, and the founder of a family business still flourishing in the village today. This is a statue in his honour in the village. Born in 1841, he built up a huge potato enterprise and supplied all the potatoes eaten at a dinner for the poor of London to mark King Edward VII’s coronation. His farm, Woodlands Organic Farm, consists of level silt fields which were reclaimed from the sea by the monks of Crowland Abbey some 900 years ago...