The mystery trip!

                                                                                       I joined the ladies and gentlemen, last Wednesday, when we all set off on our mystery trip, I sat on the back seat with my friends Shirley and May, Our tour guide for the day was Ernie, who introduced us to Gary, who we were instructed not to call driver! We went through a few villages, and then turned of, and through to St Ives in Cambridgeshire, Of course we were all speculating about where we were going! ” I think we’re gooing to Duxford said Shirley!” We don’t wanna goo there, that’s for Blokes”… Over on your left is a village called Trumpington and in the church, there is the biggest collection of brasses in the country, Ernie pointed out the church tower at Duxford also way over in the distance, on we went past the Duxford turn off….phew! Then May announced,” bet we are gooin to Ely Caffedrul ! “Now I thought, oh great I would enjoy that, the only thing is, after the meeting where we had played Bingo and I had a little moan to you all, and told you I was to go on the mystery trip, Barry Oddbodkins had teased me in a comment saying we were to go to a mammoth Bingo session in darkest Ely!!! He’s going to have a field day with this I thought!…...But no! On we went down the A1 towards Cambridge and this was when the tour began, with Ernie pointing out Girton College tower way over to your left, originally built for Ladies… we turned of the A1,On to Saffron Waldon and our attention was drawn to over there on the right are the laboratories ,called Genome campus where DNA was discovered…on we went now through many charming old country villages, with Ernie pointing out the church spires, which were square ,with a smaller spire  at the top ,these are called Hereford towers ,and we saw a number of them .we went on, to see very old original houses, Ernie informed us there was very little clay or stone in the area ,so the houses were made of wood and a wattle and daub, and often the upper story over hung the lower. They were delightful many of which were pargeted (painted) we went through Great Chesterford an old Roman village, with some timber houses, one dating back to 1692…..Then on through to little Chesterford, where the oldest house there is said to date back to 1190!....We went past a pub called ‘The Cricketers’, which is run by the parents of Jamie Oliver (a celebrity TV chef) of course by now we were in Essex, on we went through the Deevon valley ,on to Debden, where is Dick Turpins cottage, and Gustolf Holst once lived and from where he wrote the planet suite, and so on to Finchingfield where we stopped of for an hour to eat a lovely cream tea, On our return home we went through many more picturesque villages including Steeple Bumstead birthplace of Nurse Edith Cavel ,(there is a hospital named after her in Peterborough),On to Haverhill where there is an old Roman road going to Colchester …we went through Newmarket and saw Tattershalls the big sale/auction place ,where many famous racing horses are bought and sold. Onto Exning, that was the main town until they had the Black Death and moved, to …Newmarket hence the name. On and on through many Fenland villages, and the some how beautiful, vast and often erry Fens, Coming to Erith where there was once a Vicar the Rev Sayers…he had a daughter Dorothy, and it was from here the book’ The Nine Tailors’ was written by Dorothy M Sayers!......During the rainiest period imaginable here, we were lucky to have brilliant sunshine all afternoon which all added to our enjoyment of a lovely afternoon…..there was so much more I could have shared with you but by now I’m sure I have gone over my limit and will get a wireless alert for sure ,I hope you enjoyed the account of our day out as much as we did ….with love from 

   With Thanks to Donna for my signiture and lovely graphic today