St Edmundsbury Cathedral discovered

After checking out of our hotel mid morning, we drove down the A14 towards Felixstowe, where we are booked for the weekend. On our way we made our first ever visit to Bury St Edmunds, and found, at the end of an approach to the city, marked by traffic congestion, a prosperous old town centre with easy parking, all the modern retail facilities, and a great variety of charming historic buildings to see, on our way to the Cathedral of St Edmund, King and Martyr.

The  building is in origin a fine East Anglian mediaeval abbey, and an equally fine mediaeval Parish church in the grounds next to it. The abbey precinct is large, and scattered with remnants of former buildings. Including its magnificent Norman gatehouse on to the street, adjacent to the Cathedral.

Buildings nearest to the abbey have at some time in subsequent history since the dissolution og the monasteries, been turned into residences or serving the Cathedral. The churchyard and gardens on the site of former abbey buildings are beautifully maintained and attractive. Before the reformation this place would have been a key place of pilgrimage for the region, and had extensive property and land. Whatever the town acquired in this process has been well looked after, to everyone's benefit.

What surprised us about the Cathedral building was learning that the lantern tower above the central crossing, similar to that at Ely Cathedral, was only completed a few years ago, according to a design envisaged by the architect who re-built the nave almost a century ago, and left substantial funds to support its completion.

It's a great accomplishment, perfectly in harmony, like the modern cloister, with the mediaeval character of the building, and a marvellous showcase of traditional craftsmanship which still flourishes in this region, with church support. Here's a link to the photos of our visit.

We had lunch outdoors at the Cathedral's visitor centre restaurant before resuming our journey, and arrived at our seafront B&B in Felixstowe, the Dornicourt Guest House, at tea-time. After settling in, we walked the length of the promenade as far as the Fludyer's Arms where we stayed on two previous visits. Since then, it's been modernised and gone up-market as a stylish Real Ale pub and music venue the key feature of its accommodation offer. We enjoyed supper at the versatile Fish Dish restaurant on the sea front near the pier, offering quiet a varied menu in addition to serving traditional English fish and chips. Another eating house on our visit with Turkish management, offering good service and an interestingly diverse menu.

  

Re-unions

After an ample hotel breakfast, we spent the morning seeing Cambridge on foot, visiting colleges, as tourists do, and then took an hour's guided tour of riverside colleges in a punt piloted by an eloquent young man, who happened to be a home grown local lad, recently graduated from Aston University, whose summer job this was. An entertaining experience, and for him, his last day of work before setting out for a year's EFL teaching in China.

After lunch in a cafe restaurant opposite King's College under Turkish management, I headed out of  the town centre to visit my architect cousin Ivor, now living in sheltered accomodation in an inner suburb. It's several years since we last met up. Since then he's been plagued with illness. Now he's getting used to a new way of life, and after a hands-on career as an architect and teaching architecture, he's becoming an historian of modern architecture, drawing on his unique perspective of a lifetime of working experience, some of it spent with his mentor, the renowned Leslie Martin.

He has scholarship funding, and tells me that one of its benefits is the right to have his remains interred in a Cambridge college with which he's associated. I imagine having his work published and available on University library shelves is much more important to him, with such a story to tell. Like art and literature, the buildings of our era are an essay describing in their different ways the values and attitudes to life that matter most. Buildings that much easier to understand when accounted for by those who belong to their circle of authorship.

In the evening Clare and I met with Craig and Mel McKay, whom we haven't seen for over thirty years. Mel was Clare's bridesmaid at our wedding, and married Craig, a Cambridge astronomer five years later. They've lived in the city ever since, she working as a counsellor for thirty years and then in retirement as an historic garden guide, and he at the cutting edge of technological development for space probe instrumentation, still full of the excitement and enthusiasm for the developments of the age we live in. He got to work on building legendary Hubble space telescope quite early in his career, and is working on the Roque de los Muchachos telescope array in the Canary islands. Retirement, what is it? Working on the things you love, but on on a pension.

Here's a link to the photos taken during our stay

East Anglia journey

This morning we drove to Cambridge to stop a couple of nights on our way for a weekend with Eddy and Ann, celebrating their joint 145th birthday. We took the most direct route via Oxford, four hours on a good day, five hours for us, due to long traffic queues approaching north south junctions with west-east routes.

We checked into the Arundel House Hotel on Chesterton Road and were given a first floor bay window room overlooking the river Cam across the road and Jesus Green beyond. A little noisy, but a great view. After unpacking, we walked the streets for an hour, then returned for an evening meal in the restaurant downstairs, before turning in for a good night's sleep.

   
 

Half term break - part two

There was a conveniently located bus stop near the hotel, with only a quarter of an hour's journey down the A14 from Barr Hill into the heart of Cambridge. The weather was good enough to enable us to spend the day mostly walking around sightseeing. It gave me an opportunity to try out my new DSLR, alongside my little Sony Cybershot W690 pocket camera, which has a versatile wide angle and telephoto lens, actually better for townscape pictures, even if its performance isn't quite as brilliant as the Alpha 55.

We went to King's College chapel - my first return visit since attending the annual University Chaplains' conference thirty seven years ago. We had to pay to get in this time, instead of being shown around by a colleague. We also visited Gonville and Caius college chapel and met the Dean, Rev Dr Cally Hammond as she was re-organising the chapel vestry. She is one of three women of thirty clergy student pastors in Cambridge. Thirty seven years ago there were none, yet it's nearly twenty years since the first women were priested in the CofE. This is hardly natural progress for such an elite place of learning. No wonder the ordaining women bishops in the CofE is proving to be such a contentious issue. So hard to break into the boys club it is.

In other ways, Cambridge churches seem to have made an effort to be more open and welcoming to their public, whether locals or visitors. It's a town of many churches and chapels and most are open during the day. Being All Saints Day, several churches were advertising an evening Sung Eucharist. The buildings are well looked after, many have staff on duty within during opening hours and are attentive to accessibility and aesthetics in a way that reflects changes in worship and the way preaching and teaching is done today.

I was impressed by the conversion of St Michael's Church nave into a restaurant with balcony, (after the manner of All Saints' Church Hereford), with its chancel enclosed by a glass screen. As we queued for lunch, I noticed a group sitting at a trestle table between the chancel choir stalls, starting a Communion service together. Their priest wasn't robed, but the pottery chalice, lit candle and service sheets showed what they were doing. It was too late to join without disrupting their quiet moment in a busy environment. With the ad hoc Communion table located in that position, I wondered if a conveniently sized space had been chosen for it, or if homage was being paid to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer rubrics, which directed this as the place for the Holy Mysteries to be enacted. It's funny how history can repeat itself.

We took the bus back to our hotel as the sun was setting, tired after five hours walking. Clare went for a swim, and I just lazed around, as my ankle joint was giving me grief. After dinner in the hotel restaurant I got on line and caught up with the preparatory work I needed to to, wishing I didn't have to get on with it quite so urgently. I also wished we'd been closer to town, to allow us to attend one of those Sung Eucharists on offer there.