Antony met our train and spent a couple of hours with us having a look at an older part of the town around the Cathedral which was built only a couple of years after William the Conqueror took control of England. A beautiful and relatively simple cathedral which also serves as the school assembly hall for the nearby cathedral school which Johnny attends. Lucky boy!
The cathedral close has some beautiful older houses and it and the walk along the river nearby are very peaceful. Norwich didn't suffer much damage during the war so it's buildings are mostly original. Also found that the nurse of WWI fame, Edith Cavell is buried in the cathedral grounds and came from a village near Norwich. I remember learning about Cavell when I was in primary school. She was executed by the Germans early in the war for treating Allied soldiers. The incident provided further material for Allied war propaganda portraying the German as a bestial enemy. The Belgians describe this early period of the war as the terror because of numerous acts of destruction, execution and revenge perpetrated by the German army against Belgian citizens.
Anyway- Norwich is beautiful and well worth more time.
Antony then drove us to his home in the country - Mockbeggar Hall- where we met Celia and went off for lunch at a nearby English pub. Mockbeggar is centuries old with some Victorian additions and changes-some more successful than others. Antony and Celia spend a lot of time in their very large garden which includes a formal section, a woodland, lake, lots of bulbs, hedges, vegetables and flowers. There are numerous outbuildings including a large barn and a dovecote. Apparently dovecotes were kept as a means of obtaining meat in winter- pigeon pie I guess. Mockbeggar is a wonderful property and I can well understand why Tony and Celia fell in love with it. However it certainly requires continuous attention and maintenance.
On our trip to Norwich we travelled through the very flat land of the fens which I nevertheless found quite pretty. We also went through Ely and it's amazing and very large cathedral seems to float above the town.
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