The Mystery Trip ..with pictures !

Good morning everyone ,now we have the 'add pictures ' backI can tell you about our trip and show you the pictures I took with thanks to Donna for the graphic this morning .                                                            A week last Wednesday May 23rd, It was a lovely sunny and warm day, (we haven’t had many of those of late), and since then it has been rain rain and more rain, and cold too. We boarded the coach and were soon driving along familiar Fen roads, Under the big East Anglian sky’s beside dykes and drains; Ernie Hall our guide was able to tell us, which drain was which, there is the Forty foot near us, and there is a Twenty foot and a fifteen foot and so on these are the width of the Drains that were dug when the Fens were drained back in the 163o’sand master minded by Dutchman Cornelius Ver Muden ,who had gained his experience in his native Holland a country with similar problems as ours here in the Fens ,The main key to all this masterpiece of mans ingenuity is the massive Denver Sluice on the river Great Ouse not far from Downham market which is known as the ginger bread town due to the colour of much of the distinctive local stone to be seen on the older buildings  ,we passed through Downham Market ITV have been showing a programme called ‘Kingdom ‘ ,it is about a small town lawyer called Peter Kingdom played by Steven Fry , who practises in the fictious town of Market Shipborough  but based on this area ,last weeks episode touched on a legend that Ernie our guide had told us about ….Back in the 1500's A peddler  John Chapman nfrom Swaffham Norfolk had a dream, if he stood on London Bridge a stranger would tell him how to make his fortune, so off he went to London, where a stranger came up to him and told him to go home and dig under the Oak tree in his garden, he did this and found a pot containing enough money for him to build the Church, and if you visit the church St Peter and St Paul’s, you can find carvings of the peddler on the pew seats……On we went covering many a long Norfolk mile ,past Houghton Hall, towards a place called Bircham Ernie explained that though we had come the ‘scenic’ route he knew where we were ,even though lots of sign posts had been taken down during the war and hadn’t been replaced ,I did see one that said Cromer 9 ,and got all excited ,thought I might buy a dressed crab ,for which Cromer is famous ,but no we were nearly at our destination Bircham windmill ,a working mill, with a delightful restaurant serving cream teas ,and tea in big brown tea pots ,though I don’t drink tea I was served a coffee ,whilst I played Mum to the ladies on my table wielding the brown tea pot for them ,,after wards I went out side to see the little farm animals ,and some ancient implements ,and of course take my pictures ….and then before I boarded the coach for the return trip  I popped into the little on site gift shop ,and bought .well you know me ….a book Millers Daughter, by Nancy Potter ‘A portrait of a Norfolk Miller and his Family ...There we are now we have our 'Addpictures' back  I am able to share the day with you.....Have a good weekend every one with love from 

  Janxx