19 Oct 2014. <GB-ENG> Snape, & Framlingham, & Blythburgh, Suff —
We had stopped off on the edge of the forest near Snape Maltings — little or no traffic on the road, so a ver-r-r-r-y quiet night! When we got moving, we decided to call in again to
Snape Maltings in the hope of getting a look-in at the auditorium. Trust our luck — there's a performance tonight, so the hall was once again in rehearsal mode, so no visitors. We looked around the place and there were two changes from yesterday. First, there had been some severe winds overnight (which we hadn't noticed in our secluded refuge on the forest), so a lot of the bright-red autumn leaves had been stripped from the Virginia Creeper on the walls. Second, the tide was in, so the river looked totally different. Worth the revisit just for these!
We then drove on to
Framlingham Castle, a magnificent 12-century castle built by Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk. Remember Roger Bigod? He was the man against whom Henry II built Orford Castle! Interestngly, what remains of Framlingham Castle is mainly its curtain walls — in fact, it seems never to have had a keep within these walls. So, if you were to take Orford Castle and plonk it right into the middle of the space within the walls of Framlingham Castle, you would have what most people would picture as the classic castle!
Framlingham has been in the hands of the Bigods, the Mowbrays, the Howards, and also of the crown itself.
Framlingham has at least one claim to fame. It was the centre of power of
Mary Tudor, coming into her hands when Thomas Howard, third duke of Norfolk, was disgraced (after promoting then betraying two of his nieces, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and later political machinations). Mary was here on 19 July 1553 when she heard that the Privy Council in London had accepted her as queen.
There is one major building within the walls of Framlingham, and this is the poorhouse, which provided work and lodging for the town's paupers from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It was so successful as an institution that a large number of the present population of Framlingham is descended from its residents. Part of this building dates back to the 12th century, but most of it is Elizabethan and later.
We walked round the walls, marvelling at all the chimneys atop the current 12 towers (of the original 13), until we found out that only three were functioning chimneys, and the others were added as 'window dressing' in Tudor times, to make the whole look less like a military fortress and more like a palatial mansion!
View from the walls across the mere
Next destination:
Blythburgh, a small village in northeast Suffolk, whose main claim to fame is its
Holy Trinity Church. This was built near the site of an earlier Augustinian priory founded in the 12th century, suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, and subsequently raided for building materials. The present church was originally associated with the priory, but was extensively rebuilt between 1412 and 1480. This large church is often called 'Blythburgh Cathedral' or 'The Cathedral of the Marshes' — and its tower is a remnant of the earlier fourteenth-century tower building. It looks and feels old, and the timber ceiling is decorated with statues of angels, their wings spread, that have gained a fame of their own. The church looks to be rather too large for the village, but it is still being used for services. It looks, however, that most of these services take place in a small side chapel rather than in the main nave. But it is good to see fresh flowers about the place, and the signs of constant use!
After this, we ended up in a rather generous layby 1 mile north of
Frostenden, in Suffolk.
Distance driven — today, 46 miles ( 74 km ); to date, 9,001 miles ( 14,486 km )
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