Buildings Bonanza.

After our walk about round Huntingdon Helen wanted to look around the the other side of the bridge to check out the old Romantown of Godmanchester.

There is very little to see of the Roman town as it has largely been built over, and the A14 seems to run very close to it with a busy road through to Cambridge that ruins the ambience. 

There are some nice houses to look at, this timber framed one has 1603 date over the door and is now called Tudor House.

This is Island Hall on Post Street. It has two acres of gardens with a Chinese bridge that leads to a private island in the river, hence the name. It was built in the mid 1700's. I loved the weather vane and the wrought iron gates.

We then walked back into Huntingdon to do some final shopping. In the Market Square is the War Memorial that depicts a 'thinking soldier'. It was sculpted by Kathleen Scott who was the widow of 'Scott of the Antarctic' and was unveiled in 1923. Apparently it is in the top 100 of the country's war memorials.

We left after lunch and headed onwards with the aim of finding a mooring at Hemingford Grey. We were surprised to see the lock manned by two volunteers. We got on the GOBA moorings as the public moorings are less open.

This is Beechers on High Street in Hemingford Abbot. It was a lovely village, full of great buildings and gardens to look at as we walked past.

In certain parts of the country thatchers finish their roofs of with finials in the form of figures. Originally thought to scare off evil spirits as well as birds, to prevent them nesting in the thatch. There are a lot of thatched roofs in this village and quite a lot have various finials.

This is the Manor House, opposite the church. The original part of the building is dated from the 1500's and then a wind on each side was added, one in the 1600's and the other in the 1700's. It is yours for over £2.6 million.

There were a few of these huge flowers on the magnolia type tree and they had a lovely smell. They are massive.

This is the Boot and slipper pub that is now a cottage with the old barn. You can see a straw cat on the barn roof, and another scratching at the chimney on the house. I saw a pike, a boater (hat) several birds and a rabbit.

We crossed the meadow to the Houghton Lock and then to the Houghton Mill that is part of the National Trust. There has been a mill near here since 969 when one was established by the Benedictine nearby. This present building was built in the 17th century and extended in the 19th. It became redundant in 1930 and was later leased to the YHA. It is open to view and is worth the £6. There is also a tea shop so scones were obligatory.

Four generations of the Brown family ran the mill. The second was Potto who was a very pious and canny man. He became the benefactor to the village, giving buildings and endowments to build a  school etc. He was thought so much of that the locals clubbed together on his death and had this bust made and mounted.

The timber framed building dates from the 15th and 16th century and was a former pub called the Black Horse. The white building attached was an extension of it. A lovely view but we were mostly struck by the beautiful hollyhocks that are at the front of every house in the village it seems.

This lovely cottage only dates from the early 1600's but is just picture postcard perfect. The walk to the Houghton was well worth it as we felt that we had walked into a film set it was so 'perfect'. Not at all like 'up north'.