Cambridge – week 2

The second week started rather overcast and cooler than we had been used to. We visited two National Trust properties over the weekend. The first Wimpole Hall was built in 1643 and much altered by subsequent owners, Wimpole has developed into the largest country house in Cambridgeshire. Wimpole's owners employed noted architects of their day to make alterations to the Hall

One of the interior rooms and the bathroom with shower. The bath holds 3000 gallons of water enough for 130 normal sized baths!

   

As is usual with visits to NT properties the volunteers are very helpful and some full of detailed information, sometimes we leave with info overload.

When we visited it was lambing time which accounted for the large numbers of people with children. Some of the new arrivals.

   

On Sunday we visited Anglesey Abbey a country house, formerly a priory, in the village of Lode, 5 miles from Cambridge.

The 98 acres of landscaped grounds are divided into a number of walks and gardens, with classical statuary, topiary and flowerbeds. The grounds were laid out in an 18th-century style by the estate's last private owner, the 1st Baron Fairhaven, in the 1930s. Lode Water Mill, dating from the 18th century was restored to working condition in 1982 and now sells flour to visitors.

We went almost to the top of the mill. The top itself was closed. A lot of work has gone into restoring the mill and its good to see it in working order. This mill was recorded in The Doomsday Book.

Lode Mill                                     Mill stones

   

Here are a couple of photos of the new guided bus route for Cambridge. I’m not risking life and limb by taking the photos because the project is 2 years late at the moment. If you want to know more about the problems there is a website called ‘no guided bus’. Many of the buses in Cambridge ask the question ‘Why am I not on the guided busway?’ printed on the rear of the bus.

      

South of Addenbrookes Hospital runs part of the National Cycle route.

The completion of the new route marks the 10,000th mile of the National Cycle Network and to celebrate this achievement, some innovative public art has been installed.
Over 10,000 colour stripes have been laid on the path, representing the genetic code for a vital human gene - BRCA2, which was sequenced at The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in nearby Hinxton.
The artwork is a unique series of stripes in four colours representing the different genetic letters that make up the vital human gene BRCA2.

The double helix is a representation of the human DNA magnified 750,000,000 times.

St. Vigor's Church, Fulbourn  -  after some rather dull weather it was nice to see a sunny day so we went to Fulbourn to do some geocaching and to get in a country walk which was lovely. The church dates from Norman times.

Altogether we had 2 weeks in Cambridge and enjoyed some very good weather. It rained only the once.