Ely, Quy and Anglesea Abbey

22nd Sep - a superb day

First to Ely and a guided tour of the wonderful Cathedral. I sung there around 60 years ago when I was a boy soprano! The medieval nave is one of the longest I have seen as there is unusually no choir screen. The place is vast. Betty took loads of pictures which we will try to upload with Picasa soon.








The octagonal wooden central tower is incredible.
Apparently the old stone one fell down around 1300 or so. So they re-built in wood using the old stone pillars. The oak main beams have a staircase built into one of them
Then on to my Mother's old 'country' home at Stow-cum-Quy a
small village outside Cambridge. She used to live in Cambridge but cycled out to Quy for most weekends. I wouldn't be game to do that these days. We visited in 2001 and were briefly shown around the house by the widow of the last owner. She lived there with a house keeper and Gardener. Needless to say the place was mouldering away. We had a good chat with some who lived in the village who told us the place had been let to "a snooty lot". Certainly we got no answer when we rang a few door bells - despite two Jags and a Land Rover outside! The villagers still pay rent to the Quy Hall trust.....

We were referred to Anglesey Abbey and gardens down the road a couple of miles away. This was a really nice (National Trust :-) property with a working Flour mill (mentioned in the Doomsday book).
And the house had a lot of very interesting furniture, paintings, and family items - including 73 clocks!

Finished with an Ice cream (Betty's choice) and got stuck in a traffic jam on the A10 on the way back to our Norfolk digs.