Ixworth

As I indicated in the last Blog entry, Alyson and I spent the weekend at my daughter's lodgings in Ixworth, Suffolk around 8 miles from Bury St.Edmunds.  The three pics above show the main street through the village, with the usual confection of 16th century, pastel and pink, half-timbered houses.   Megan's house (Beech Cottage) can just be seen in the centre-right of the first picture, in fact our pale blue Toyota Aygo can just be seen with it's rear end poking out of the driveway.

Beech Cottage is a large, rambling place dating from the late 16th century, along with most of the other houses along the main road.  What was incredible though was that Mary (her landlady) aided and abetted by Megan, had totally renovated the guest room where we stayed...

....and had deliberately revealed the original 'wattle and daub' infill shown above. As my daughter is an archaeologist, she took some photo's of it and her colleagues confirmed the age...this is the first time that it's been uncovered in over 400 years and it's been so well preserved, it looks like it's been done yesterday.  The intention is to eventually cover the panel with a piece of glass so that all who stay in the room will be able to marvel at it.

The weekend was a real success including (after a really excellent meal prepared by Megs) the session down the pub in the evening...six pints of Greene King 'Abbot' still manages to slip down without too much effort.

It was the red wine round the farmhouse table later that did the damage...that and staying up till 4.30 in the morning.

Will I ever learn?

Probably not... c'est la guerre!