ELY CATHEDRAL The cathedral’s silhouette dominates the whole area; it’s dubbed the ‘Ship of the Fens’ as it’s so visible across the vast, flat sweep of land. An Anglo-Saxon church since 673 when Etheldreda, daughter of the king of east Anglia, founded a nunnery here. The nunnery was sacked by the Danes, rebuilt as a monastery, demolished and then resurrected as a church after the Norman Conquest. In 1109, Ely became a cathedral and Gothic arches were added later to support the weight of the mighty walls. The unique octagonal tower was added in 1350. The magnificent building is huge, long and narrow. The vaulted ceiling is painted with great biblical scenes. Tours for the church and stained glass museum are charged for.
Oliver Cromwell was from Ely when he took up arms against what he felt was the fattened, corrupt monarchy of Charles I.
CAMBRIDGE (pop 130,00)
The tightly packed core of colleges, the picturesque riverside college gardens and the leafy green meadows surrounding the city give it a more tranquil feel than its historic rival Oxford. The buildings have been unchanged for centuries.
Fitzwilliam Museum. Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745-1816 with homes in Surrey, estates in Ireland and lodgings in Paris), bequeathed his art collection and library to the University of Cambridge and £100,000 to build the magnificent building housing the museum completed in 1848. Since the collection has been added to by many others. It is a hodge-podge of everything with huge amounts of pottery, china, porcelain and glass, Egyptian, Roman, Greek and fine art. The interior was modified several times to produce one of the finest surviving Victorian interiors in the country. The collection grew so large, a major extensions were added in 1915, 1966 and 1975. Free
After my London dental appointment, I started to visit all the places in England that I had missed the first time around. I headed around the north end of London on the M25. For the second time on the large freeway around London, I was caught in an accident and it took 3 hours to go about 5 miles.
EAST ANGLIA
ESSEX
Historically, this was a major Saxon kingdom. See the dazzling treasure horde dug up at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk now housed in the British Museum. The region’s heyday was in the wool boom of medieval times. Cambridge University was also founded then. By the 17th century, most of the marshland and bog had been drained. Canvey Island. Another NM island is a meaningless place to visit – and you can’t even tell that it is an island. There is nothing here of interest including the unattractive town, city centre and flat landscape. There is a large gas storage facility.
Southend-on-Sea. This pretty seaside town on the north side of the Thames Estuary has a great sand/gravel beach with a promenade along its length. Most of the beach is the Foreshore Local Nature Reserve and on its west end, the Leigh National Nature Reserve them sees 153,000 birds overwintering. It is London’s weekend playground replete with a children’s amusement park, gaudy amusements, gift shops, pubs, restaurants and an aquarium. But it is much more low-key than Blackpool. The highlight is the Southend Pier, at 1.34 miles long, the longest pier in the world. Built in 1830, the pier has a railway line and at its end, a café, sun deck, museum, gift shop and boat rides.
Foulness Island. In the Nomad Mania Island and XL series,
Chelmsford. In the NM European city series, but a little different than most cities in England.
Colchester. Founded as Camulodunum by the Romans in 43 AD, it is Britain’s oldest recorded city, dating from the 5th century. After they constructed their northern capital, it was raised by Boudica just 17 years later. In the 11th century, invading Normans built a mighty castle, today set amid narrow streets. The rose garden in front of the castle was in full bloom. The Holytree family donated the land around the castle for Castle Park, a lovely place to walk around in. Colchester Zoo. The second most visited zoo in England, it has 230 species, all in attractive big enclosures. You can feed elephants, giraffes and a parakeet. It’s about 3 miles southeast of Colchester. £20.50 concession.
Dedham. In the NM small town series, it has the lovely 1492 Parish Church (oak ceilings and gorgeous stained glass) and John Constable attended school here with many of his paintings in the church tower – the area is called Constable Country.
SUFFOLK
Ipswich. An NM European city, the Ipswich Museum is the highlight. The museum has collections of Victorian taxidermy, a gold horde, Egyptian and a general hodgepodge of local history. Free Next door is the Ipswich Art Gallery with Contemporary Chinese Works on Paper. Free
Orford Castle. The town of Orford (pop 713) is pretty (like most rural English towns) with only the castle the draw. Up until the 16th century, it was a major fishing port with active wool trade but the river silted up and in the 17th century, oyster farming and smuggling took over. The 12th-century castle, King Henry III’s keep structure has an innovative, 18-sided drum design with three square turrets. From the roof there are good views of the nature reserve of Orford Ness. £4.40 concession
NORFOLK
It is known for its big skies, beaches, marshes, meandering inland waterways and flint houses (flint is the round cobble that is used for the façades of houses). The locals say that they have “one foot on the land and one in the sea” as you are never far from water here.
Norfolk Broads National Park. These vast wetlands were formed when the river’s Wensum, Bure, Waveney and Yare flooded the big holes inland that had been dug by the 12th-century crofters looking for peat. The fragile ecosystems are home to some of the UK’s rarest plants and birds in 125 miles of lock-free waterways. Driving the roads around the Broads is missing the point and is pretty useless. It is recommended to go to Whosham north of Norwich or Potter Hengham north of Great Yarmouth and use a boat or the trails to explore the area. Canoes or small boats with outboards can be hired for a day or a week
The 61-mile Weavers’ Way walking trail stretches from Crorner to Great Yarmouth. The Broads highest point, How Hill is just 12m above sea level. The section between Aylsham and Stalham is open to bicycles.
NORWICH (133,000). Known for its medieval treasures, impressive cathedral, and castle, it has lovely cobbled streets and narrow lanes to wander around in.
Norwich Cathedral. This magnificent Anglican cathedral’s spire is higher than any in England except Salisbury’s and its cloisters must be the largest. The church is almost identical to the original. I took a wonderful guided tour. Work began in 1096 with the Anglo-Normans who bought the limestone used to construct it by boat from France. It is 141m long. Its most striking feature is the superb 1461 rib-vaulted ceiling – among the spidery stonework are 1200 sculpted roof bosses depicting Bible stories and one of the finest achievements of medieval masonry. Bring binoculars to see them well. The font is unique – two huge bronze bowls kept to a high shine that came from a local chocolate factory. A local high school band was practicing when I was there.
Similar bosses are much easier to see in the cloister (1297-1430), originally built to house 100 monks. The differing tracery of the arches shows its long construction timeline. Outside is the grave of WW I heroine Edith Cavell, a Norfolk-born nurse executed in 1915 for helping hundreds of Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. A mountain in the Rocky Mountains of Canada is named after her.
Norwich Castle. The massive 12th-century castle sits on a broad hill. It is one of Britain’s best-preserved examples of Anglo-Norman military architecture. Exhibits tell about Bodica, the Iconi, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Vikings. The keep has the story of medieval punishments meted out in the medieval prison.
Norwich Museum of Bridewell. Down a side lane, it is housed in a 14th-century prison and explains Norwich’s prominence as England’s second city in the Middle Ages and its 19th century industrial heritage with displays on shoemaking and a pharmacy.
Blakenly. Another NM village, was active fishing and trading port until the 17th century when the river and port silted up. Now the town fronts a narrow tidal inlet (that looks more like a small river) lined with small boats. The economy is mostly based on tourism which is very popular in the summer. People come here to walk along the inlet, about 2-3 miles each way to the neighbouring villages, and to go by boat out to Blakeney Point to see the large common and grey seal colony. It is a very attractive village with brick and round flint facades on most buildings.
Burnham Market. About 12 miles west of Blakenly and 3 miles inland from the ocean, this must have been a market town at one time, but now there are just a smattering of small businesses – and I couldn’t understand why it is in the NM village series. It is attractive with many houses faced with red brick and round cobble – all the cottages have cute names. I doubt that it even has a tourist appeal. I walked around for a while but saw no one to ask what was happening there.
Sandringham. The Queen’s country estate is set in 25 hectares of landscaped gardens. The stables now house a museum and car collection. It is 6 miles NE of King’s Lynn. I didn’t go here.
I then had a drive through more bucolic English countryside – fields, stone walls, flat then rolling, trees – to Grimsby, an NM European city, with nothing to commend it other than a nice McDonalds lot to sleep in.