Brewery, buildings and birthday.

As it turns out we could have come down from Peterborough at a great speed and got her earlier as I'm sure the tide wouldn't have been that much stronger for turning round. We dashed out as we were heading for Elgood's Brewery on the North Brink and it closed at 16:00.

I know what your thinking, it's Helen's birthday and they are off to a brewery?! Well, it was her choice and we were actually going to look round the 4 acres of gardens.

The brewery started in an old oil mill in 1795 and has been owned by the Elgood family since 1878. The gardens were part of the estate bought from the nearby Peckover estate. The victorian gardens were largely dug up during WWII for the Dig for Victory drive, but have been restored. The brewery is the building to the right and the house is still where the fourth generation of the Elgood's live I think.

There is a maze in the garden. I was hoping that Helen would wander into it and I would be able to slope off to the bar, but she kept her eye on me all the time.

The garden has some very mature trees that were planted in the original garden and are now specimen trees for the country. The gardens were a haven of peace after a busy day.

We went to the tea room bar for refreshments, and as they had no cider Helen tried a wheat cherry beer and enjoyed it. I had a pint of their Black Dog Mild. This is the family crest that was on the tabbard below the bugle that were played at the proclamation of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II when the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire was an Elgood.

This part of the town is where the more wealth chose to move to when they became wealthy merchants having lived 'above the shop' at their houses on the commercial quay. Seagoing Vessel only came up to the Town Bridge and above there the goods were transferred to barges for onward traffic inland. The rich built their house overlooking the water and wanted to keep an eye out for what was going on. They therefore built these little towers in their front gardens!

Here is another one, that is a little bit grander as the merchants all tried to outdo each other.

Just by Freedom Bridge is this memorial to Thomas Clarkson who was born in a house just to the left of the photographer. He was a leading campaigner in the anti slavery campaign and was the supplier of statistics and stories to William Wilberforce to help fight the campaign in Parliament.

The Crescent was built after 1792 when a Joseph Medforth bought the Wisbech Castle site. He had started out as a bricklayer and made a lot of money after he moved to London. He became a property developer. He built this side of the circus on what was the moat of the castle. It was only later, after quarrels with the council that he built the other side, with about 50 homes. A lovely Georgian Crescent is a real asset to the town and not to be missed.

It is great to see that old businesses like this have survived too. Helen's chose to go to the Wheatsheaf, a Weatherspoon's, for her birthday tea and had a pizza and prosecco. We were then booked to the local Luxe cinema which is one of little cinemas that are owned by Picturedrome Theatres. It is just 70 seats and has the latest seats, sound and vision and was just £5. We went to see 'Yesterday' which was very good indeed. A great 'British' movie with no green screen, car chases or explosions. Well worth seeing.

I couldn't help taking a picture as we got back to the boat. The cruiser makes us look very small indeed. And so to bed.