Regalia

Our plan today was to head into Cambridge and see King's College (whose Christmas carol service we watch every year!) as well as some of the other University stuff there, but alas it was not to be! The weather was not on our side, and also the lack of signposting and borderline incomprehensible roads of Cambridgeshire seem to come to a head in Cambridge itself, and we soon found ourselves ejected out of the city (through no intent of our own!), its inner mysteries impenetrable. So we decided, rather than return to the traffic-enfused mayhem of Cambridge city and get rained on trying to look at the colleges, that we would strike out somewhere else! We literally noticed a point of interest on the map, looked it up on my phone, and headed for it.

And it turned out to be awesome! Kentwell Hall is where we ended up, in Long Melford. We had to travel a little bit into Suffolk to reach it but it was worth the trip. It's this amazing privately owned manor house dating from the 16th century and earlier where they do re-enactments and such throughout the year. There weren't any on today but the house itself is quite incredible. They've done extensive restoration work (as usual the Victorians did their best to overwrite everything that came before them) and basically made much of it like it was in the 1500s, which is unusual as most places are 1600s and 1700s at the earliest, with the earlier stuff hidden. They've also made a lot of additions but all perfectly mimicking the style of the house - to the point where a stairway added in the 1970s looks about 300 years old.

It was really interesting and a great thing to do in the dry - the heavens continued to open throughout the day. The gardens were very nice too though we didn't get to see them; a return trip is in order I think! The resident peacock joined us under the shelter of the awning outside the cafe, which is how I got this shot - he's incredibly tame, I got this shot at about 28mm equiv! Pretty rare to get this close!

After the hall we had a bit of a drive through Suffolk villages on our way back, and they were pretty impressive too, Long Melford especially. We're starting to think a holiday in this region would be a good idea!