There and Back

Being in Colchester one day, I decided to have a wander in Castle Park, a lovely place to wander most of the time. Here I have a few images of one stretch of the garden which I thought particularly lovely. Approaching the Castle, I was greeted by this display with a tribute to the recent Coronation of Charles.  Then to three images of the part of the garden that took my attention. Lovely splash of colour!    Index of posts  

Having been told about the wall paintings in Copford Church, I did a little research on the internet, and this is a quote from one site:    " What is it that makes it so special? It is interesting architecturally and has a pretty woodland setting, on the edge of our small village, beside the cricket pitch. However, the remarkable Norman wall paintings are the real attraction, described by Simon Jenkins as `amongst the best in England`. Only five minutes off the A12 just south of Colchester, they are certainly worth a detour if you are visiting East Anglia." Having never been to Copford before, I had to get out my map and plot my journey - only to find that Copford is only just south of Colchester so didn't require much plotting! On arrival a coffee morning was in progress and before long was included by the lovely bunch of people there. Plus, one of the ladies gave me a detailed tour of the church, before making my coffee and cutting me a large slice of cake!  So, back ...

I am not sure when I first heard about this building, which is through a farmyard and down a track in Bures. However, having read something about it I was fascinated to gather my camera and take the trip to Bures - which is not too far away.   My first two views of the chapel About one mile north-east of the village, down a track through Fysh House Farm, lies my objective - the Chapel of St. Stephen. Apparently, this was the private chapel of the Manor of Tany, or Tauney, and was dedicated to St. Stephen on St. Stephen's Day 1218, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This makes it the oldest building in the parish, it pre-dates the church by approximately 150 years. There is good reason to believe that the Manor House for which the Chapel was once built, stood on the summit of Cuckoo Hill now occupied by a small grove of trees. For all houses that were of any importance, were fortified usually by a pallisade of wood with a commanding view of the open countryside. The rear view of the ...

When it was reported in a local newspaper that the world's largest container ship was in Felixstowe docks, (that's Languard Point,) we made our way to see this mammoth. Luckily, we had planned a visit for another reason already!Making our way to the car park close to the observation area, it was obvious that the news travels fast - there were a lot of people about for the same reason no doubt. World's largest container ship MSC Loreto at Felixstowe It has the capability of holding more than 24,346 containers. A view of the MSC Loreto with a large Stena Line passenger ferry passing by. The Stena Line ferry rounds the river mouth against a backdrop of a radar tower and a line of shallow water markers Parts of the timber pier which once carried rail lines to the end of the jetty. The railway was linked to Landguard Fort where, in the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, a system of using submerged mines was devised to protect the approaches ...

Felixstowe is the nearest seaside town to us and seems to be gaining in popularity judging by the number of people seen there. A couple of visits within a few days and here are some images from those visits, including my first sight of the new Ferris wheel. But to start, some images from the Languard end of Felixstowe. Many ferries as well as container vessels are visible at virtually any time. Looking inland there is the beautiful Nature Reserve. Here with part of the old fort in the background. Then, of course, the busy container port. The Port of Felixstowe is the United Kingdom's largest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as the 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a handled traffic of 3.85 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). In 2019 it was ranked the UKs 7th busiest port - shows how it`s growing! Mind you, if you travel the A14 in the area you will see evidence of its growth with a c...

Today I made a visit to the village where I used to live - Boxford in Suffolk. My aim on this visit, was to take a few photographs of the lovely Church. The origins of the Boxford church are unclear, but there is indirect reference to it in the Domesday Book (1086) via an entry for the Manor of Kodenham, which lay in what is now the Parish of Boxford. In that reference the church is recorded as having 20 acres of Glebe Land, an area which remained constant right up to the twentieth century. By 1286 the village is recorded as Boxford and paying dues to the Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds. The boundaries with the parishes of Groton and Edwardstone, to the north and west respectively, used to run to within a few meters of the northern boundary of the churchyard. The church therefore probably served the scattered populations to the south. However, with the growth of the wool industry, Boxford expanded north across the River Box into the area now occupied by Broad Street and the bottom end of Sw...