There and Back

Monmouth was an area which we had not explored before, having just passed below it on our way to Pembrokeshire in the past. We had a good journey, despite moderately heavy traffic, stopping at Reading service station on the M4, which looked as it had been invaded by hundreds of pensioners - bus loads of them.!! Having left the M48, we descended rapidly onto very narrow Welsh roads until, and without too much trouble, we arrived at Annie’s Cottage. It was in a beautiful spot and was really well equipped and spotlessly clean. Annie's Cottage  The view from the cottage toward Monmouth soon after we arrived.  Sunday was a different story (below) with mist rising from the valley and providing a great backdrop to the Old Church just a few meters from our cottage.  Penallt Old Church as the mist cleared  There are indications of a church on the site in 1254 and an internal batter to the north wall of the nave, that suggest that the p...

The story of Wingfield , Suffolk, is the story of two powerful families; the Wingfields and the De la Poles, Earls of Suffolk. The church of St Andrew nextdoor is tied to both families. St Andrew's was begun in its present form by Sir John de Wingfield in 1362, as a collegiate church, that is, administered by a college of priests rather than placed under the care of a rector. Sir John's tomb lies within the chancel that he built, and there are later memorials to generations of Wingfields and de la Poles.  Wingfield College is now a private family home. But its history goes back over 650 years. It has kept the name of college because it is the remnant of the chantry college founded by Sir John de Wingfield in 1362. Sir John was a soldier of high reputation in the reign of Edward III, and Chief Counsellor of the Black Prince. In 1355 he accompanied him to Languedoc, and some letters of Sir John’s written during the campaign still survive as important records of the War. He ...

Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. The present Helmingham Hall may have been initially constructed in 1510 on the site of an earlier house called Creke Hall. The exterior was altered between 1745–1760, again in 1800 by John Nash, and in 1840. The original half-timbered walls have been concealed by brick and tiles.  The house is surrounded by a moat, over which it is reached only by two working drawbridges, which have been pulled up every night since 1510. These were originally operated with a windlass but in recent years this has been replaced by an electric motor.  Queen Elizabeth I is said to have twice visited Helmingham: first in 1561, and later to attend the christening of Lionel Tollemache as her godchild. Lionel Tollemache marked the first of ten consecutive...

Redgrave & Lopham Fen is an internationally important lowland valley fen with a unique landscape of spring-fed sedge beds, rush and grass meadows, wet and dry heath, woodland and pools. Home to insect-eating plants and Britain's biggest spider, the fen raft spider, this dramatic fenland landscape is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and the source of the River Waveney. The fen is an exceptional place for wildlife and a testament to the vision of those who battled to save it. It`s a wild watery landscape of sedge, rush, heath and hundreds of pools created over many centuries by local people as they eked out a living, digging peat for fuel and cutting reed and sedge for thatching. Talking of large spiders, here is an image I captured in 2010 on a visit. Not the best quality, but it does show the creature in its habitat. The Raft Spider is a large, chunky spider that lives around the edge of ponds and swamps. Adults sit at the edge of the water, or on flo...