Oxburgh Hall

In 15th century England apparently it was stylish to build fortified residences, including moats. (You had to get permission from the king to crenellate). These were show-castles, of which Bodiam is perhaps most famous, but which also include Nunney (Vicki's family castle, in the West), Oxburgh, and perhaps Ightam Mote in Kent. In at least two of these cases, the founder had fought in the Hundred Years War, which was a happy war for the English, for a time. Veterans returned wealthy from their enterprises abroad, burning and raping and pillaging, even capturing the French king. The most profitable enterprise was capturing royalty or nobility, whose family would then pay an enormous ransom. Nunney evidently was designed as a replica of the Bastille. We'd seen three of these and wanted to visit Oxburgh, which, if not the most scenic, is certainly the best preserved, along with its gardens and interesting historic contents.

Oxburgh; rhymes with Edinburgh

Everything looks fine on the outside, but the inside is almost totally scaffolded:
a dormer collapsed and fell off the roof; inspection suggested that the entire roof
be replaced, at a cost of 6 million L; can't build scaffolding from the moat

The place is crammed with period and original paintings and
furnishings

Concealed door in library

Gorgeous carving throughout

So Mary Queen of Scots was not popular with her subjects, abdicated, and fled
to England, hoping for the protection of her cousin QE1; and indeed, Elizabeth
protected her to the extent of placing her under house arrest and lodging her, for
some years, with the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was the 4th husband of Bess of
Hardwick, who, through a variety of circumstances and productive marriages, was
the richest woman in England, after only QE1 herself; anyhow, to while away the
hours, and years, Bess and Mary sewed together, and at Oxburgh are two of their
embroideries; above is a panel done by Bess

And this is a panel done by Mary: "Virtue flourishes with a wound," and you
can see the gardener cutting down a barren vine (Elizabeth?) and allowing
productive one (Mary?) to grow; it's doubtful Elizabeth ever saw this, but she
had Mary executed in due course

Room after room, a whole hallway of beautifully tooled and painted leather

The master suite, leading to

The priest hole: the Bedingfeld's were Catholics, and,
unlike so many, on both sides of the Wars of Religion, came
out largely unscathed...by keeping their heads down and
playing nice with whomever happened to be king or queen;
the priest hole here (a place to hide the priest if the priest-
hunters dropped by) was under the suite's garderobe (loo)

Something you'd  expect at the British Library and not out here in the hustings...
Henry VIII's courteous request that the Bedingfelds (good Catholics) find a
place to bury Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, who had been living (now
divorced) in a nunnery; click to enlarge and read a fascinating letter

Ditto: Henry III's letter authorizing a market fair, February
28, 1249

Tower staircase leading to upper floors

King/queen's suite (should he/she ever pop in)

Tudor comfy chair...tough times, tough people

View from top of one of the towers

Looking toward the gardens

Vicki descending

Beautiful altarpiece in the nearby family chapel

Stained glass there

Another great visit...next, the gardens

Ely Cathedral

In the way-back-before years, I think we had seen Canterbury, Westminster, Salisbury, and the York Minster. In 2009, on our first post-retirement campaign in Britain, Ely, in Cambridgeshire, was the first new (to us) cathedral we saw, and it made an immediate impression...the monumental Romanesque structure, the painted wooden ceiling, and especially the octagonal lantern tower. We were eager to see it again this time, so much so that we inadvertently got in the building with the opening of the 7:30 mass doors, well before visiting hours, and had the whole cathedral to ourselves. (The mass was off in some little chapel). We did leave a small offering in gratitude.

Another great big one that fills the lens and more

Love the entwined arches

All the ingredients of Norman/Romanesque

Elevation, with the giant gallery so typical of the age

A bit of the painted wooden ceiling

Closer up

Looking back from the crossing

The original central tower crashed down in 1322, and rather than risk a repeat
of that disaster, the builders elected to go with the wooden octagonal lantern tower
that is now in place

It is Ely's most distinctive and beautiful feature

Also at the crossing...the cathedral has very old origins

With the choir and chancel and then the Lady Hall, fashions changed, from
Romanesque to Decorated

Hovering angels, just like we're seeing now in the parish
churches of the area

Thus

Beginning stages of fan vaulting and some incredibly intricate carving

Also some nice windows

In the Lady Hall, full-tilt Decorated (ignore the despicable
contemporary statue of Mary)

It was in the Lady Hall that Cromwell's troops did their greatest damage to this
church (and many others) in the Civil War, lopping off heads of anything that
smacked of Roman Catholicism, smashing windows, even scraping off paint

Outside: I developed my interest in funny faces--grotesques--sometime after Ely,
probably not until we saw Kilpeck months later; but now I noted that, like any
decent Romanesque church, Ely is fairly covered in funny faces

Scores, maybe hundreds of them, two lines here on aisle and nave

Alas, some appear to have been redone

Not sure we like this---wondering what it might have meant to a 12th century
craftsman versus looking at a 21st century caricature

I would leave you, kind reader, with this final image, but...

In Ely, Cromwell's home town, his family's house is now the Tourist Information
Center

Hard to think of anyone who did less for British tourism!