Anglesey Abbey

This weekend Pappy went home to Burnley to watch them keep their top spot in the championship against Charlie's new side, QPR. So Mr Bee and I decided to have a trip of our own. We trekked through 4 counties to get to Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire, with one hell of a diversion as there was a closure on the A14. 

And what an adventure we had. With autumn in full swing, we kicked, threw and chased leaves all over the huge grounds. We must have walked for miles and miles around the paths. 

 

Of course our tour of the house was whistlestop with Louie (remind me to visit again childless...!). We counted the hundreds of clocks inside the house and marveled at the deco bathrooms. The library was the firm favourite with paintings of Kings and Queens lining the shelves. Louie confidently pointed out King Richard (of course) and told the lady the story of Lady Jane Grey living in Bradgate Park, being queen for a short while and then having her head lost (as he calls it!). History geek in the making...

 

 (oh and the house was nearly completely carpeted so you could either go shoeless or with shoe covers on!)

 After a delicious lunch, we visited the formal gardens to hunt for bees and butterflies but came to the conclusion that they had gone to sleep for the rest of the year. We didn't see any, but we did see some beautiful roses and dahlias.

 Oh and some ENORMOUS fungi!

We walked alongside the river to Lode Mill. We watched the watermill turn the millstones to grind the wheat into flour, and even bought a bag of wholemeal to use for our pizzas tomorrow ;)

On our way home, we couldn't resist popping into the Cath Kidston factory shop (at St Neots) for some cheeky christmas presents. Well we were passing!