Bury St Edmunds – Abbey Gardens and Ruins

Yesterday I spent a lovely couple of hours in Bury St Edmunds with my friend Julie, it was a spur of the moment trip as originally we were going somewhere else but missed the bus by a few minutes!  We decided to get on the next bus going somewhere interesting, which was Bury St Edmunds! As a spur of the moment trip it wasn’t a bad choice!

I have been to Bury a few times but not really taken time out to appreciate its history, especially of that in the Abbey Gardens.  This area of Bury is its most fascinating part, and a great place for wandering around ruins whether you are adult or child.  ‘Hide and Seek’ seems to be the popular past time of choice for visiting children, the ruins are perfect for it!

Bury St Edmunds is a Suffolk market town close to the borders of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Essex.  St Edmundsbury Cathedral and Abbey Gardens, in which the inspiring ruins are situated, are its focal point.

The site has been connected with religion and pilgrimage since the death of King Edmund in 869, after which an abbey to house his remains (he was murdered by Danes) was built.  A church was also built next to the abbey around that time, eventually receiving cathedral status in 1914.  The dissolution of monasteries in the 16th century meant that the abbey was dismantled and has been a ruin ever since.  This picture of the abbey shows how impressive the entire complex was before it became a ruin.

My second photo above is the entrance to the gardens, it is a great way to enter such an interesting place!   The Abbey Gardens area itself has a beautiful array of flowers in perfectly kept sections, the colours are amazing.  You can read more about these here.  There is also a play area, a bowling green and an aviary.

The ruins themselves are fantastic to walk around and very photogenic, I took so many pictures!  Here are a selection of my photos…

                                 

                 

This last picture, as you can see, is commemorating a meeting between some barons of the abbey in which they agreed to ‘compel King John to sign the Magna Carter‘. Twenty five of the names on the plaque are the barons who were to enforce observance of it.  It seems though that historians are sceptical the meeting took place.  Still, it’s very interesting!  It’s not a particularly good picture of it so you might not be able to read it!

The ruins are a really inspiring place to sit and relax, or in our case bounce ideas off each other for novels/poems/essays set in the ruins! Just need to write the novel now…hmm!  Watch this space, hehe.

I am looking forward to making more trips to Bury St Edmunds in the name of research!  There are several museums to visit and other historical buildings to find out about and photograph.  It is also a great place to go shopping!

One last picture I want to include is this random picture I took of a tree in the gardens!  I am fascinated by trees at the moment because of my art class.  I’m not very good at making trees look like trees, so I’ve set myself a challenge to become good at them!  It’s such an interesting shape and fits in really well with its environment!

May – Lily of the Valley

Over the last year I have been posting about customs and traditions from each month, which has been really interesting.  May was my first customs and traditions post, so I thought I’d try a year of focussing on ’birth flowers’ each month.  I will be posting about their meanings, customs, traditions and anything else interesting I find out about them.

The custom of birth flowers, and indeed birthdays themselves, is thought to have originated from Roman times.  Romans would celebrate the birthday of each Roman God, placing flowers on their altars.  They also gave flowers as a part of their gifts for family birthday celebrations. However, flower symbolisation itself can be traced back as far as ancient China.

Flowers were also important during the Victorian era where they became a way of conveying meanings, using symbolisation instead of having to tell someone how they really felt which they weren’t always very good at doing!  The Victorians are said to have placed as much importance on flowers as they did to how someone was dressed!

The birth flower for May is the Lily of the Valley, its real name is Convallaria Magalis which translates as ‘that which belongs to May’.

Over the centuries it has taken on many meanings. It’s main meaning is sweetness and humility, due to it being small in stature with a preference for the shade. To the Victorians it meant ‘return of happiness’ and in religious terms the flower is associated with biblical Eve by Christians.

Eve’s tears were said to have turned in to lilies of the valley after she was expelled from the Garden of Eden, because of this the flower also has associations with purity and chastity.  Apparently it is mentioned fifteen times in the bible and also used in religious ceremonies.

In folklore the lily of the valley is said to be used to keep evil spirits away from gardens and as a charm to ward off witch spells!  It is also thought to be the favourite tipple of fairies, who drink from the tiny petal cups.  So now you know what to do if you see any fairies or witches lurking in your garden!  In ancient China they used it for medicinal purposes, believing that adding it to their remedies would help to bring good luck.

Lily of the Valley is also a popular wedding flower, with some brides traditionally having the flower as the fifth item after something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new.

Here is an interesting Telegraph article (albeit from 2004!) about how to grow Lily of the Valley, just in case you feel the need to do so after reading this, or find some thirsty fairies in your garden!

I have also found this YouTube video of how to make a Lily of the Valley wedding bouquet.  There is also a little write up underneath about how William and Kate used a lot of Lily of the Valley at their wedding!

A Calendar of Bakes – An afternoon of cake and history in Cambridge

Firstly…

Happy 1st Birthday to my blog! 

Thank you to everyone following my blog and for the lovely comments on my posts over the last year.  I am really enjoying posting here and look forward to posting more.  I have also recently received a couple of lovely blog related messages on Twitter which was a lovely surprise (oh and on Facebook too..thanks Mum, hehe!!).

My first post on April 29th last year was about The Secluded Tea Party (which has also been the subject of a couple of other posts since too).  It turns out this birthday post is also Secluded Tea Party related! What better way to celebrate my blog birthday than indulge in a nice slice of cake and a cup of tea!

This post might turn out to be quite long, so thank you if you do read the whole post

A Calendar of Bakes

I attended ‘A Calendar of Bakes’ at the Folk Museum in Cambridge, with cake and tea supplied by the lovely Miss Sue Flay, hostess of The Secluded Tea Party.  It was a truly inspiring afternoon and improved a very miserable, wet, Sunday afternoon!

Our museum hosts begun by giving us a fascinating talk, which took us through a year in cake related history.  Here are a selection of my favourite traditional foods and customs;

First Footing/Black Bun

First Footing is a New Year tradition mainly found in Scotland and the north of England.  Depending on what type of person is the first to enter your house after new year supposedly determines the kind of year you are to expect!.  Naturally they would want a respectable, good-looking, successful type of person walking across their door step, otherwise who knows what bad things would happen that year!  A ‘black bun’ is the traditional cake eaten at this time and is a thick crusted pie filled with fruit.

St Agnes Feast/Dumb Cake

Poor St Agnes was only 13 when she became a martyr to her catholic faith.  St Agnes is said to have loved her faith wholly and vowed never to ‘stain her purity’.  St Agnes refused all suitors and became the patron saint of maidenhood, and is said to be worshipped by young girls who wish to enter the perfect marriage.  St Agnes feast was celebrated on 21st January, maidens hoping for the perfect marriage would abstain from talking and fast all day.  In the evening they would eat a ‘dumb’ cake, with ingredients donated by their friends.  Once the festivities had ended folklore dictated they would dream of that perfect marriage!

Cambridge Fairs

Cambridge is famous for its fairs, one of them being the Stourbridge Fair which was one of the largest fairs of the medieval era.  Gingerbread men/women were one of the most traditional cakes eaten and would be sol by the women.  Eventually the popularity of ginger bread died out and brandy snaps replaced them.  Of course these days it is now sweet treats like candy floss which are most common at fairs.  Interestingly the main sweet maker around that time was Reynolds, whose fruit flavoured rock was also sold at the fairs, apparently the family still run a stall at Cambridge market too!

St Clements Day

I have left my favourite til last!  St Clement is the patron saint of blacksmiths and was celebrated on November 23rd.  However, it was also a day celebrated by bakers and this is what interests me the most.  Cambridge bakers held a feast on this day, for the poor of Cambridge, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s coronation.

The feast was held on Parker’s Piece in Cambridge, with 15000 poor people attending.  Apparently around 4500 loaves were baked for the event! Phew!  The museum has a picture of the event and some other exciting artefacts related to that day.  I am fascinated by this and want to find out more.

After the talk we were invited to take part in a food history trail of the museum, related to what we had just been told.  I visited the folk Museum a few years ago but it was great to look around again.  I have become more interested in history since my last visit so I found myself looking at all the artefacts housed there in a different way.

The subject and the environment have inspired me and there are so many things I would like to research/write about/blog about.  Watch this space!

Last, but not least, we were able to sample Sue’s gorgeous cake creations (yum!), drink tea and chat to fellow guests.  a lovely way to end such an interesting afternoon.

If you are ever in Cambridge take time out to visit the museum, which is situated on Castle Street in Cambridge.  The artefacts are housed in a lovely 17th century timber-framed building, they are set out in rooms which relate to different parts of a house, such as a kitchen for example.  I plan to write a post about the museum in the future.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did attending it

Swaffham Prior – a tale of two churches

On Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon in Swaffham Prior, a village ten miles north-east of Cambridge. I last visited the village about eight years ago, it was nice to re-visit.

Swaffham Prior is one of those villages that has a peaceful, relaxing ‘sunday afternoon’ feel to it whichever day it is.  We could feel the relaxed atmosphere as soon as we got off the bus in the high street.

A short walk from the bus stop is the fascinating and unusual church yard.  It is unusual because two churches share the site, making the church yard a very impressive sight.

The two churches once served two different parishes despite the village having only a few hundred inhabitants.  In 1667 the two parishes were united, to be served by one priest, by an act of parliament.  St Mary’s (the church on the left of the pic above) became the adopted church and is still used for services.

It is lovely and light inside and I was able to take some pictures on my mobile, which never usually works very well in other churches.

Whilst St Mary’s is still used for services St Cyriac’s is empty.  Although St Cyriac’s had lost favour with the congregation it was given a one hundred year reprieve from 1779, when St Mary’s was struck by lighting.  However, St Mary’s was eventually restored finding favour again from the early 1900′s.  More information on the history of St Mary’s can be found here.

Despite being a redundant church St Cyriac’s (full name St Cyriac and St Julitta) is still an impressive building.  Despite being empty inside (see pic below), it has lots of character and is a great community space.  It also has several boxes of second-hand books to buy, which was a nice addition, anywhere selling books is fine with me!  Naturally I couldn’t resist purchasing a few of the lovely things!  All money collected goes to keeping the building open.

After our church visit we had lunch at the lovely pub before wandering around the rest of the village.  Swaffham Prior also has two windmills which I remembered well from my last visit as I love windmills. So after lunch (a very nice cheeseburger and chips is available should you ever find yourself there!) we went to have a look at those too.

Fosters Windmill is a working flour windmill and opens it doors to visitors on the second Sunday of each month.  When I last visited I got to look around and go up to several of the other floors.  It was fascinating to see a working windmill in action.

The windmill is closed to visitors at all other times, however the owners kindly let us take photos.

The other windmill is part of a house conversion, I am a very big fan of unusual conversions, especially when they involve windmills! We had a quick look from afar, mindful of invading the owners privacy.

Once we had finished wandering around Swaffham Prior we decided to walk over to Swaffham Bulbeck, which is the next village on the way back to Cambridge.  It takes around half an hour to walk, I’m sure it’s a lovely walk when it doesn’t start bucketing down with rain half way there!

I took this photo on our walk…

As we were a bit wet by the time we got in to Swaffham Bullbeck we took refuge in the nearest pub, as you do, so didn’t get to look around properly before catching our bus back to Cambridge.  I think I will return to have a look around and get a proper feel for the village.  Another blog post in the future maybe!

April – Fools and Eggs

Hello, hope you all had a lovely Easter and have enjoyed the break.

As a non-chocolate eater there was no danger of me over doing it on the chocolate front at this time of the year.  I was given some gifts to help me with my watercolour painting, which was lovely.  So much nicer than filling myself with chocolate

I have realised it’s been a few weeks since I last posted, oh dear! Time to put that right…

NB…I know Easter can sometimes fall in March but for the purposes of this blog it’s an April event

Easter Eggs, bunnies and other things

How did easter eggs and easter bunnies become part of the Easter celebrations? Eggs have great symbolism relating to new life, fertility and rebirth. In pre christian fertility lore Rabbits and Hares served as symbols of fertility during Spring.

Easter egg hunts, with trails left by the easter bunny, began as children believed rabbits and hares eggs were laid in grass. The easter bunny (which was originally a hare) is an Easter tradition which is thought to have originated from 16th century Germany.

Originally brightly decorated eggs were exchanged as romantic gifts, servants in mediaeval times were also given decorated eggs at easter time.

Some ideas for next year:

A lovely blog with several posts about decorated eggs, it includes some really beautiful pictures.

Some more decorated eggs…

http://familyfun.go.com/easter/easter-crafts/easter-egg-decorating/

http://www.delish.com/entertaining-ideas/holidays/easter/easter-egg-decorations

Also, if you are looking for alternative easter gifts next year here is a great post I came across the other day..

One last link…these easter cupcakes are SO cute!  My mum decided to make a version of them and they were extremely nice!

April Fools

So, how many of you fell for an April fool this year?  I prefer to take the stance of stubbornly refusing to believe ANYTHING I see or hear on 1st April, until it is safe to stop being cynical, hehe.  I find it works very well.  What is the best april fool you have ever seen or heard and did you believe it at the time?

April Fools (or All Fools Day) is thought to be linked to the change of calendar, from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, in 1582, although no-one is actually completely sure when it started and there are other theories.

For this post I am concentrating on the calendar change theory.  The theory states that ancient cultures celebrated New Year around 1 April, also most of europe celebrated the ‘Feast of Annunciation’ around 20 March as the beginning of the new year.  According to legend the new change in calendar wasn’t very popular and people refused to accept, continuing to celebrate New Year on 1 April.  Those who refused to acknowledge the change were made fun of, some even sent them on ‘fools errands’ or tricked them in other ways.

Eventually the tricks and jokes became popular in europe and have continued ever since.

March – Daffodils

First of all Happy Mothers Day!  Hope any mum’s reading this have had a lovely day.

We are half way through March! Where is the time going?

I have also realised that my blog will be one year old on April 29th!  Better get thinking of something interesting to write by way of celebration then..hmmm.  Perhaps my followers/readers can think of something they would really like to read about?  Suggestions very welcome! So, set me a challenge to write about something in particular, I do like a good challenge.

Anyway, back to March.  As it is Mothers Day I thought I’d blog about a March related flower.

Daffodils

I have decided Daffodils are my favourite flower, I love their shape and colour.  I also love how daffodils sometimes grow in random places, some in a bunch, some singularly. I have noticed this on my bus journeys to and from work.  They seem to turn up nowhere near others that are all growing together.

Also known as Narcissus or Lent Lily, daffodils are the ‘birth flower’ for March so I thought I’d give them a shout out in my blog.  The pics in this post are daffodils in my parents garden.As a spring flower, daffodils are seen as a symbol of re-birth, it also said they also symbolise respect, regard and unrequited love. However, if you ever found yourself experiencing an urge to eat one don’t, they are poisonous.  So now you know, hehe.

The Romans are said to have gifted daffodils to England, via the Mediterranean, as they were thought to have healing powers. Unless of course you ate one and you’d probably die instead, or at the very least feel very itchy as the Romans discovered when they tried using it as a healing aid.  Daffodils emit crystals as a defence mechanism, which was why the Romans began to itch a lot.

According to folklore, you should be extremely careful when walking around a daffodil bed because if you stamp your feet or trample on them you will experience bad luck.  However, if you are nice to them and avoid stepping on them you will experience good luck.  Never give anyone a single daffodil as this will being misfortune to the house, they can also cause migraines if you are in a confined space with one apparently, so you have been warned!

Daffodils are beginning to sound a bit evil to me, I think they’d make a great baddie in a horror story. Attack of the Killer Daffodils anyone?

Perhaps the best setting for a daffodil horror story could be Thriplow, a village not that far from mine.  It hosts a daffodil weekend one weekend every March and is holding its 44th festival is this weekend.  I have never been and was hoping to go yesterday, until I discovered that although Thriplow is not far it is almost impossible to get to if you rely on public transport, pffft!  I am hoping next year I can persuade someone with a car that they really do want to go!

I think that’s enough about those feisty daffodils!  Although I am fascinated by them and they are still my favourite flower, hehe.

Must start that horror story…

Anne Sullivan Macy and Helen Keller – a legacy

Happy International Women’s Day!

To mark the occasion I thought I would write a short post about two women I have recently read about, Anne Sullivan Macy and Helen Keller.  Last Saturday marked the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of these two ladies meeting each other.  Below is a potted history of how they met and how they forged an inspiring partnership, which shaped the way deaf/blind people are educated today.

In 1887 Anne Sullivan Macy began teaching seven year old Helen Keller, deaf and blind since she was 19 months old.  When they first met Helen was unable to communicate well with her family, the frustration she felt manifested itself in behavioural problems. Helen’s life began to change when Anne, visually impaired herself, was asked to teach her. Anne started teaching Helen by finger spelling words, progress was slow Helen’s continuing behavioural problems also hindered her learning.  However, Anne’s influence and perseverance meant that her behaviour soon settled down.

The situation improved dramatically one day when Anne spelt ‘water’ on Helen’s hand, then placed it under a tap of running water.  Understanding the spelling and meaning of ‘water’ was a defining moment for teacher and pupil. Helen’s amazing progress made her famous, which lead to her travelling around the world with Anne, giving lectures and appearing in Vaudeville shows. Later films, theatre productions and documentaries based on their story were made.

Anne and Helen went on to forge a fourty nine year partnership, whilst Anne’s teaching style became the blueprint for teaching deaf and deaf-blind children worldwide.

You can read more here about Anne Sullivan Macy and Helen Keller

An afternoon in St Ives and Swavesey

St Ives (not the one in Cornwall!) is a market town fifteen miles from Cambridge. It has a lovely relaxed atmosphere and is great for mooching around on a Saturday afternoon, exploring its fascinating history and picturesque views.  My friend and I spent the afternoon doing just that today.

We took the recently opened Guided Bus route from the centre of Cambridge, travel time is around 20 minutes and is a pleasant journey through the open countryside.

St Ives’ history really began in Saxon times when it was called ‘Slepe’, although artefacts in the local museum (The Norris Museum) show that it was inhabited from The Stone Age onwards.  The museum is a lovely little building with some fascinating bits of St Ives’ history housed in it (although the dried rat and dried cat which was kept in a box in someones chimney, for superstitious reasons, was a little creepy!).  There were also some gorgeous watercolour paintings of the town which made me very jealous, I would love that to be that good!

The 15th century bridge (pic at the top of this post), which crosses the River Ouse, is an impressive part of the town which has greatly influenced St Ives’ development throughout its history.

Half way across the bridge is St Ledger Chapel, which is a small but fascinating building with a lovely view across the river.  Visitors can borrow the key to the Chapel from the Norris museum, a deposit is required to borrow the key.  The St Ledger Chapel, named after a french bishop who become a martyr in the 7th century, was once used as a tollhouse.  Interestingly it has also been used as accommodation for the last prior of St Ives, a shop, a lock up, an inn of disrepute and, legend has it, as a brothel!

The chapel acts as another smaller museum and is definitely worth a visit.  If you are ok with narrow steep steps, it has a second lovely room downstairs.

According to one of the information notices there are four other surviving bridge chapels in the UK, these are in Derby, Bradford, Rotherham and Wakefield.

A statue (pic above) of one of St Ives’ most famous residents, Oliver Cromwell, resides on Market Street, beside the Free Church.  The market is at its busiest on Monday mornings, with a smaller one on Fridays.  Walking along I noticed that although it was a Saturday and quite busy, it was still a relaxing, quiet place to be. St Ives as a whole felt like that too.

It was a really nice place to be,although at first it was threatening rain with some mist but by the end of our trip it was really warm and sunny.  The riverside was an especially gorgeous place to be in the sun.  It’s also a very photogenic place, as the number of pictures I took proves!.  Lots of ideas for future watercolour projects!

On the way back to Cambridge we got off in the village of Swavesey, drawn by the interesting looking S Andrew’s Church, which can be seen from the bus route.  Unfortunately it was locked, as quite a few churches seem to be these days sadly.

I would definitely recommend St Ives and Swavesey to anyone who would like to visit somewhere close to Cambridge, with great views and an interesting history.

Houses of Parliament and Augustus Welby Pugin

Part of the Parliament building

Houses of Parliament

The iconic Houses of Parliament building (also known as The Palace of Westminster) is on our TV screens most days, but have you ever wondered what it’s like inside?  I did, so on Monday I took the day off work and spent a fascinating two hours inside.  The  tour, which takes the route the Queen walks when she attends the state opening of parliament, lasts around 1 hour 15 minutes.  The other reason for my visit is in the second part of this post.

The gothic architecture we see today was designed by architect Charles Barry, who won a competition in 1835 to re-design it after a fire destroyed some of the original buildings.

My favourite parts were;

The Robing Room - this is the room where the Queen changes in to her robes and crown for the state opening.  The most fascinating part of this room is Queen Victoria’s throne, which hasn’t been used, or upholstered, since Victoria last sat on it. It’s amazing to see something so old,which was sat on by someone so important in history.

The House of Lords/The House of Commons – Visitors can walk around both of these chambers, but it is forbidden to sit on any of the seats.  The Queen’s throne, which she sits on during the state opening, is situated in the House of Lords.  The gold that surrounds the throne is so valuable that is fenced off by a railing to stop people trying to walk of with bits of it!  The House of Commons room is smaller than it appears on television, it must get very hot when it is full of politicians!  The table in the middle has a ring dent in it where Winston Churchill used to bang his fist!  Visitors are able to stand where David Cameron and Ed Milliband stand.

UK residents can book a free weekday tour, at least six months in advance, via their local MP.  However, tickets for tours on Saturdays, or during the summer opening period, are available to both UK and Overseas visitors.  Details of how to buy tickets can be found here.  Security to get in is very tight and quite intimidating.  It is much like security at an airport, but sadly it is needed.

The tour is fascinating but leaves you feeling exhausted, in a good way!, as there is so much history to take in!

There is so much more to share on this subject.  I am currently writing an article about the tour so if you would like to read more about my experience and the history, please check back here at the end of March when there will be a link to my article.

Augustus Welby Pugin

You might be wondering where Augustus Welby Pugin fits in to this blog post.

Firstly, he was born two hundred years ago today (March 1st) so Happy Birthday Augustus!

Secondly, Augustus Pugin is thought of as one the 19th century’s most influential architects/designers/writers.  He assisted Charles Barry with the drawings for his competition entry, his gothic inspired interior designs can be seen throughout the Palace and the Big Ben tower.

A list of may of the other buildings which Pugin designed can be found here

I discovered Augustus Pugin last year and did a little bit of research in to his career, with a view to writing about him around the anniversary of his birthday.  I feel I probably have not done justice to him in this post so I apologise to anyone who comes across this post who is a fan of his work!

However, the reasearch I have done so far means I do have some ideas for articles related to his work.  I am hoping to put those somewhere online in the near future, I will also add the links to these here too.

The Botanical Gardens, Cambridge.

It must have been the slight spring feeling in the air this week which inspired me to finally visit the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens yesterday.  It was actually the first time I have ever been, it’s only a fifteen minute walk away from my office and I pass it every day!

A wintery tree at the Botanical Gardens

The gardens have been at its present site in Cambridge since 1846, covering an impressive forty acres of heritage listed beauty.  Originally situated in the centre of Cambridge from 1762, the site is now opposite Station Road with another entrance on Trumpington Road.  The University of Cambridge houses its research collections here.

A former Professor of Botany at the University is credited with founding the new site.  John Henslow, Chair of Botany at just 29, originally designed the garden to house a tree collection.  He also put in to place ideas he had about variation and the nature of species.  One of his former students was Charles Darwin, who of course acted up on those ideas in his own research.

Fountain in the Gardens

The gardens are divided up in to many different sections, including a winter garden (see pic below), dry garden, healthy herbie, rock garden and a fountain section (see above pic).  There are glasshouses too on the north side of the site, these are used to protect plants from the climate.

There is much to admire about the gardens, and it gives you a great idea of how beautiful it will be in full bloom during the summer.  I am looking forward to returning then to see how picturesque it looks.

Winter garden

The varied plants, trees and wildlife mean that the site is a great educational hub and welcomes school parties.  It also runs events such as courses, talks and workshops all year round for those interested in finding out more, or getting involved in the natural world.  The website is a brilliant mine of information, do take a look at the link at the beginning of this post.

Click here for the opening times and admission fees.

I am glad I finally visited.  It was such a relaxing hour, albeit a tad chilly!