There and Back

St Edmundsbury Cathedral is a stunning mix of ancient and modern. A former parish church, it became Suffolk’s Cathedral in 1914 following the creation of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. A modern expansion began when Stephen Dykes Bower was appointed architect in 1943. With whitewashed walls and a stunning lantern tower, St Edmundsbury Cathedral presents a colourful and bright interior that visitors are often surprised by. The Cathedral’s tower was finished in 2005 and its crowning glory is the vaulted ceiling that rewards those who gaze upwards. (See my image below) The Norman Tower, also known as St James' Gate, is the detached bell tower of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Originally constructed in the early 12th century, as the gatehouse of the vast Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, it is one of only two surviving structures of the Abbey, the other being Abbey Gate, located 150 metres to the north. As a virtually unaltered structure of the Romanesque age, the tower is both a Grade ...

Redgrave & Lopham Fen is an internationally important lowland valley fen with a unique landscape of spring-fed sedge beds, rush and grass meadows, wet and dry heath, woodland and pools. Home to insect-eating plants and Britain's biggest spider, the fen raft spider, this dramatic fenland landscape is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and the source of the River Waveney. The fen is an exceptional place for wildlife and a testament to the vision of those who battled to save it. It`s a wild watery landscape of sedge, rush, heath and hundreds of pools created over many centuries by local people as they eked out a living, digging peat for fuel and cutting reed and sedge for thatching. Talking of large spiders, here is an image I captured in 2010 on a visit. Not the best quality, but it does show the creature in its habitat. The Raft Spider is a large, chunky spider that lives around the edge of ponds and swamps. Adults sit at the edge of the water, or on flo...