Happy Tuesday everyone! It's a sunny day here in Virginia and I've realized it's colder here today than it was the entire time I was in the U.K. I mean - it wasn't as cold in the U.K. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling... ha-ha! Any how - let's talk about lovely little towns, haunted hot spots and an ark!
Wednesday of last week was the first day officially out of quarantine in the country! Yahoo! Granted because the entire country was in a lockdown it just meant that while we could actually drive to other places, there weren't any shops or restaurants open to venture into. The lack of shopping was probably good for my wallet - and it was nice to just get out and about to explore some places we'd never been.
We popped over to the town of Lavenham - which used to be a wool town and was just quaint and divine and what I think of as quintessentially "English". The houses had that Tudor-esque look to them and not a single one had anything resembling a straight line! One of the houses (pictured above on the left) is a tea room that is literally called The Crooked House! I love it so much!
The house above is Harry Potter's house guys! It's actually called the DeVere House but it was used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow and so of course, we had to pop by and get pictures with this house - because how cool is that? We were a little worried about finding lunch because the tavern we'd planned to get food at (that advertised being open for take-out) was not actually open and so we ended up scouring the streets before we found a little spot called Chili & Chives - and we got the very best sandwiches and desserts!
The town of Lavenham has the most lovely church called St. Peter's & St. Paul's that has been in the town in some form since the 1340's! It was built with monies made from wool - as Lavenham was a wool town - and happily the church itself was open, with hand sanitizer available as you walked through the doors! We perused the church, walking up and down the aisles and taking in the stained glass, the burials in the floor and of course, the Gothic architecture. It absolutely amazes me how dramatic and stunning each and every church seems to be in England!
Is my sister praying? Is she sleeping? I guess we may never know... Just kidding. She said that she was praying, so we'll go with that.
While we were eating our lunches in the car in Lavenham - because it was sprinkling and a bit too chilly to eat outside - I googled the Borley Rectory; widely known to be one of the most haunted places in England. Imagine my surprise when I discovered we were literally seven miles from it! I asked if we could pop over really quickly just to be able to say I'd seen it - and so away we went across the English countryside to Borley!
The actual Rectory (the pastor's house) at Borley burned down in the late 1930's - just like it was predicted to during a séance at the house... oooh spooky! The house had rumors of hauntings from all the way back in the 1890's from multiple owners of the home and even though the rectory itself burned down, apparently the church yard still has some supernatural experiences from time to time. There wasn't much to the town of Borley itself - it was incredibly small and beyond the church, there were only a few houses and lots of wide open English countryside.
The final stop of the day was the port town of Ipswich - and we really didn't get to see too much of this! Each of the spots we stopped at weren't so far from each other, but when you're traversing winding English country roads it does take a little bit longer to get where you are going! I feel like Ipswich would be the most fun to explore when it was warmer - because man it was chilly on the docks at sunset!
And yes - that's a full on version of Noah's Ark parked at the docks - apparently it's a museum all about the Bible but of course, it was closed because of the COVID. *sigh* We perused a portion of the docks/boardwalk area as the sun set and then headed back toward Bury to have some Pizza Hut (yes - that's a thing in the U.K.) and call it an early night. It was such a fun day and I 100% enjoyed getting to see some new portions of the English countryside that I've never seen before!
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