I’m going to give you a serious case of whip lash and jump between New Zealand and England…sorry! So my New Year’s Resolution is to visit all the counties in England and there’s 48 of them…maybe I didn’t actually think this one through but I’m going to give it my best go so on Saturday I ticked off my first county – Cambridgeshire.
I thought this would be the easiest one as it’s just a 30 minute drive away…let’s avoid Bedfordshire, the county that I actually live in. Cambridge is my favourite place in all of England, it tickles more than my fancy in a huge way – culture, history and amazing shopping…and I can always find plenty of gluten free food but I wanted to see something different so I had three places on my hit list…Buckden, Hemingford Abbots and Brampton.
My first stop was Buckden…home to Anne Furbanks…it’s a dress shop for the more mature lady and it was super busy as everything was 75% off…think crazy sales in America but in Cambridgeshire…where everyone wants to kill each other for a dress but are too polite to do so, will queue accordingly and then race home for a cuppa. I was more excited about the doors in the town however…how cute is Lucks Cottage (the owner of the cottage left a message on my instagram photo saying that this was his front door, it’s the second time it’s happened in the past few months)…
…I have a thing for churches so I popped in to visit the residents on a bright Saturday morning and wished I had stayed for a cuppa in the church (as I struggled to find a cup of tea later but when you’re 35 you know that the cup of tea isn’t going to want to stay in your bladder for long)…
…I always take some spend time to read the headstones, the age and stories you can read on a headstone can bring a tear to the ol’ eye…
…popping around to the Towers next which I had no idea existed. It was home to Catherine of Aragon while King Henry VIII was trying to divorce her, she spent a lot of time in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire in her final years including at Buckden Towers or as they were known at the time, Buckden Palace…Henry VIII came and visited a few years later with Katherine Howard who ended up losing her head as she couldn’t keep her knickers on.
I love walking in the footsteps of Henry VIII…
…especially when you think that he slept right here in The Tower…
I drive pass Buckden almost every time I head north on the A1 and this was the first time I had popped in for a visit.
Moving on…my next little stop was the cute little village of Hemingford Abbots, home to more thatched cottages than I had ever seen in one village before…they were everywhere!
Seriously…
…they’re…
…everywhere!
There were other cute little houses in the village…rows of colourful little homes…
…and then rather majestic ones!
I fell in love the front door of Fox House…seriously I was having a total door porn day!
Every cute village needs a cute church!
But the cutest thing was yet to come – the iconic red telephone box…
…it’s very Clark Kent – a mild mannered telephone box by day, a rip roaring super hero of a library by night!
^^As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to show Yannick!
I then realised that I was a tea snob and wouldn’t dare to order a cup of tea from the pub so I moved onto Brampton in the hope of finding a cup of tea…seriously it’s England, there should be cups of tea on offer on each street corner but not on Saturday so I ended up wandering down the high street of the little town…
…caught someone watching me…
…saw some winter colour in Brampton…
…and found more door porn!
A lovely lady in one of the tiny shops suggested that the local garden centre would be able to brew me up a cup of tea which they did…
…so Cambridgeshire I’ve ticked you off my list! 47 counties to go!
So what’s your New Year’s Resolution? Where do you suggest I visit in your home county?
xx
If you liked this post on Visiting All the Counties in England 1 / 48 – Exploring Cambridgeshire then why not come and join me on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest – I won’t bite!
You may also enjoy:
