And on to Peterborough

This is really a continuation of the Cambridge posts because, as I said in part one of those our next destination was Peterborough in order to visit a friend in hospital there. We spent two hours with her at the evening visiting time and then went to find the Travel Lodge where we had booked an overnight stay. Next morning we drove back into the city centre and had a nostalgic walk around our old haunts. When we lived just north of Peterborough we would shop here quite often. Also I would go along with friends from work to the Key Theatre and also to late night shopping, we used to have such fun. So there were lots of memories flooding back as we wandered around. We wanted to revisit the Museum and the Cathedral, which I think is a very beautiful one, in fact, one of my favourites.

Before venturing inside we had a walk around the exterior of the building. It was built in its present form during the 12th and early 13th centuries and replaced an earlier establishment founded in 655 by King Peada. This was destroyed by the Danes in 870 and rebuilt as a Benedictine Abbey towards the end of the 10th century, it was re-consecrated in 972. This building was burnt down by an accidental fire in the early 12th century - hence it being rebuilt again.

Its full title is the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew. As you enter by the 800 year old west door this is the sight that greats you. It certainly lifts the spirits. Paul took these photos as his camera is a lot better than mine for this kind of thing.

The wall painting near the west door is of gravedigger Robert Scarlett known as 'Old Scarlet' the man who buried two Queens - Katherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Below is the inscription underneath the painting. Old Scarlet was the sexton and gravedigger at the church of St John the Baptist and died in 1594. He is buried in the cathedral with a simple stone marked R.S.

As we made our way around the Cathedral there was a bustle of activity as ladies were constructing elaborate flower displays, the organist was practicing high above us and two people were laying microphone cables in the performance area.

We found the tomb of Queen Katherine in the north aisle near the high altar; it had been decorated with offerings and notes. I think the pomegranate was part of her insignia. There was also a very good exhibition of her life in the aisle close to the tomb.

Behind the apse is what is known as the 'new building'. I sat for ages just looking up at this wonderful fan vaulting which was added at the beginning of the 16th century.

Mary, Queen of Scots was buried in the Cathedral in 1587 and below you can see where she was buried. I say was, as her body was moved to Westminster in 1612 by her son, James VI of Scotland who became James I of England in 1603.

Before we left the building we went into the cloisters. It was so quiet and peaceful out there.

Then it was back in through the bishop's door for one last glance upwards and then it was time to set of for our journey home.

There was one last stop on the way home, which has a connection with my visit to Trinity College but I'll come back to that in the next post.

Thoughts on a Journey

I think the greatest impression I have of the journey along the Manchester Ship Canal is that of the contrast of the old and the new, the commerce and leisure and the urban and rural landscapes along its 35 miles. The journey itself took almost 6 hours during which time we passed from the glossy, modern buildings at the start of the journey to the impressive older buildings at the end. The first bridge lifted to let us pass from the quay into the canal and we moved sedately by the Lowry. the Imperial War Museum, the Hovis grain silo and the huge building site which is to be the new BBC studios and on to our first lock. There were five locks in all, three in fairly quick succession at the beginning of the journey. The last took us from the canal into the tidal River Mersey and we had to wait here a while for the tide to be at the exact level to make that move.

Although I had my camera with me, and I took the photograph of the ferry in the last post, once on board I decided to let Paul take the photos as the boat was very busy and seats were at a premium so he dotted about whilst I remained seated using my trusty binoculars to take in some of the views. We cruised steadily past scrap metal heaps and new canal side apartments with little balconies where people waved from open windows. I think most of all I remember the open countryside, the place where the River Mersey joined and then left the canal, the soaring railway and road bridges, especially the beautiful road bridge at Runcorn and the cantilever bridge near Warrington, the wildlife - a heron flying alongside the ferry, a buzzard on a post giving us a lugubrious stare, plovers, geese and kingfishers.

Here are just some of the sights we captured along the way:-









I have one special photograph which I am going to put in a separate post because I think it is outstanding enough to warrant it and it was one of my favourite sights on the whole journey.