VISIT TO EAST OF ENGLAND 2011

WEDNESDAY 7^th

Check out day and Plan A to finally visit the Cromwell Museum. Plan B was abandoned as Hitchingbrooke House was only open on Sundays and the last entry of the year for the general public was August 28^th. Hitchingbrooke Park covered 170 acres and had a cafe but we read it was an area mainly for people to walk their dogs or picnic. Plan C, subject to the vote, was to visit the village of Kimbolton just off the A1 which would allow both of us to make our way home later in the day.

Being allowed to leave our car in the car park we ventured across the road to the Museum and following Keith and Ian Julia and I stopped in the porch area to pick up more leaflets, including one of a town trail of Huntingdon. Why wasn’t this available in our hotel? By now the men had dropped the latch on the Museum door and I could see the attendant sat at his desk laughing. Keith opened the door and I warned the attendant that smirking could serious damage his as well as their health. He apologised but said he never seen anything like that before. Only small the collection of paintings, literature, coins and medals plus uniforms and weapons were well displayed in a building in the former school. My eyes kept going to the figure of a small boy sitting at a wooden desk in a corner – it looked so lifelike. Amongst a series of publications was a paper put before Parliament by Cromwell in which he wanted something to be done about the ‘swearing and cursing’. So there was problems with foul language in the 1600s! This was an opportunity to enquire as to why there was a figure of Cromwell in St. Ives. Apparently it was suggested that a statue be erected in Huntingdon but the community were slow in coming up with the funds and so the people of St. Ives jumped in and erected one in their town. There is no statue of him in Huntingdon.

Across the street was the Church where Cromwell was baptised and several members of his family are buried in the church yard. I admired the stone figures playing musical instruments set into the wall at the rear of the building.

As we left the Museum to return to our cars it began to rain so with Sat. Navs. set for Kimbolton we departed Huntingdon. Our journey took us towards St. Neots and then through a rural area with many notices saying ‘No to Turbines in Kimbolton’. We managed to find a parking space in the High Street but on seeing a parking sign found we could only stay 30 minutes. A local informed us this only applied to cars parked in the box area, the rest of the street we could stay as long as we liked. Great only Ian had parked in the box and despite finding him a parking place he drove by us. We waited outside the Church only to discover he was sat on the seat watching us!

Another fascinating place with wooden sculptures of ‘priests’ with hands at prayer carved into some of the beams. Many of the stained glass windows had undergone restoration work last year and this was the first time I have seen a ‘Tiffany’ window, the finished item looking quite different from the Victorian stained glass windows.

Lunch was taken in the 'New Sun Inn' with pictures of Oliver Cromwell in the small seating area. Walking up to the bar at the rear we discovered a lovely light conservatory with one table vacant and so took up residence there. Through the patio doors we could see a lovely beer garden but no way was it in use today due to the continuing cold wind. Again the food was unusual and I chose chicken and apricot mayonnaise granary sandwich whilst the men went for rare beef whilst Julia had a jacket potato. The staff were great and we thought the idea of the Landlord’s lunch to be held next Sunday 4pm was a great idea. He chooses the menu and they all sit around one long table with the landlord at the head. There was also a notice up about a Stattie Fair, stattie being the local work for street.

At the end of the High Street is Kimbolton Castle, the final resting place of Catherine of Aragon after being divorced from Henry Vlll. Today the Castle is a school and the public were not allowed access. At this point we said our goodbyes commenting that it had been quite a history lesson for us, but one we had all enjoyed. We drove to join the Al to Peterborough only to discover the slip road was closed and so we had to travel South for quite a distance before we could continue our journey north. Through Peterborough we joined the A15 and continued our journey home to arrive on the outskirts of Bridlington around 6.30.