Rosey filming for Countryfile at Woburn Abbey

A surprise message via Rosey's website led to a great couple of days in Woburn, with Rosey filming with the BBC Countryfile team! The message was from Katie, a researcher with the BBC, who was looking for a Macro bug photographer, preferable a female amateur photographer. Rosey fitted the bill! Katie also loved the images on Rosey's website.

The Countryfile 2020 Calendar has a theme of Beauty and the Beast, and Rosey was to be filmed being interviewed by John Craven, and photographing some bugs (Beasts).

In the morning we were able to search around the grounds of Woburn, courtesy of the staff, for a suitable area and Rosey did get some images. However, by the time the team got around to filming in the heat of the afternoon, most sensible bugs, and people, had run for cover!

With everyone wilting in the heat, filming got under way and was quickly completed. Rosey was later asked to supply some of her images to be used, we assume, in the programme.

John Craven, Rosey and Katie, the researcher. 

John Craven and Rosey in action.

One of the two cameramen.

The producer having a pre-filming chat.

Rosey being fitted with sound equipment as the team survey the chosen location

Prior to Rosey filming her slot with John Craven, we watched the team interviewing the Head gardener on the bridge in the Bog Garden

All in all a memorable occasion which will live long in Rosey`s memory. She deserved the opportunity, as she is an excellent macro photographer, and this was some recognition of that fact.

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The magnificent Helmingham Hall and Gardens

Helmingham Hall is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the Tollemache family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. The present Helmingham Hall may have been initially constructed in 1510 on the site of an earlier house called Creke Hall. The exterior was altered between 1745–1760, again in 1800 by John Nash, and in 1840. The original half-timbered walls have been concealed by brick and tiles. 

The house is surrounded by a moat, over which it is reached only by two working drawbridges, which have been pulled up every night since 1510. These were originally operated with a windlass but in recent years this has been replaced by an electric motor. 

Queen Elizabeth I is said to have twice visited Helmingham: first in 1561, and later to attend the christening of Lionel Tollemache as her godchild. Lionel Tollemache marked the first of ten consecutive generations of the family with that name. Furthermore, Helmingham has been privileged to receive Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family on many occasions over the last few years. 

My previous visit here was to the deer park and church, but today's visit was to see the gardens and get some closer images of the magnificent moated Tudor house.

The front of the Hall as you approach on the Oak Drive. (below)

The Oak Driveway 

Some of the famous Helmingham oaks in the Park are estimated to be up to 900 years old, and many have immense girths, but the splendid oak avenue leading up the front drive was planted about 1680. This avenue and many trees in the Park suffered terribly in the great storm of 1987; a large replanting scheme is being carried out so that future generations will see little change.

The main drawbridge at the front of the property.

The second drawbridge. 

Side view from the garden

Some views of the garden, above and below, taken on a really bright day. Consequently the colours are not as vibrant, I don't think, as they could be.

Meadow Brown

One part of the garden was devoted to a sort of `wild area` and had many butterflies in it. It is a long time since I have seen so many butterflies in one small area.

Two images of Small Skipper.

Many events are hosted at Helmingham Hall, including Motor Shows and outdoor Cinema showings. The gardens are an obvious attraction and in winter, when the gardens are closed, a wander around the outer Deer Park is well worth the effort.

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Snape and across the fields to Iken

Snape was on our itinerary for today as we knew of a walk from the Maltings toward the village of Iken. Wildlife, the Maltings as a concert venue, the shops - all add to the area being great to visit.

As it`s name implies, the malting of barley was the function of the complex but in 1965, after 120 years, the malting of barley ceased, the direct result of inefficiencies of a large complex. The site was then purchased by Suffolk farmer George Gooderham.

Meanwhile the composer Benjamin Britten had founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, five miles from Snape, (in 1948) and the festival quickly established an international reputation, outgrowing its small venues in Aldeburgh and other locations around the Suffolk coast. In the course of the 1950s and 60s Britten explored ways to build a larger venue to host the festival, and in 1965 he leased the largest building at Snape Maltings from George Gooderham to convert into the 810-seat Snape Maltings Concert Hall, which was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth in 1967. This became the home of the Aldeburgh Festival and a venue internationally renowned for the superb quality of its acoustic. It was one of the earliest examples of an industrial building being repurposed for arts use. The Hall suffered serious fire damage two years later, re-opening in time for the Aldeburgh Festival in 1970.

Visual art has been an important part of the Aldeburgh Festival since its inception. It was Britten's` belief that it should feature alongside the music, hence the full title Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. From the stage sets, to works shown in spaces in and around Snape Maltings, art has been married to the musical experience. This a view, through one piece of art, toward the Maltings, with another piece of art just in front of the building.

Another view showing the piece of art I used to get the image before. The Family of Man is an unfinished sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, which was created in the early 70s and unfinished at the time of the artist’s death. The complete sculpture is actually made up of 9 individual pieces. Two sets of the sculpture were cast; a complete set can be seen in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the remaining set being broken up into smaller groups. One of these smaller groupings is in Wakefield, the other is here at Snape Maltings on permanent loan from the Fitzwilliam Museum.

To Give Light. This work by conceptual artist Ryan Gander was made for the Great Exhibition of the North (2018) to celebrate the history of Northern innovation. It consists of 10 black sculptures made from a special glow-in-the-dark concrete material, each describing an object originally designed to emit or shine light. Each element is complete with a section of shiny mooring chain reminiscent of buoys or anchors, referencing the maritime history of the River Tyne and resonating with the Suffolk coast.

Together the sculptures appear like a series of gigantic board game pieces or trinkets from a charm bracelet, outsized as if belonging to the child of a giant.

Henry Moore: Reclining Figure (Bunched) 1961/69

A view across the river toward the Maltings as the tide had just begun to return.

Boats moored just below the bridge.

Lone tree against a blue sky, seen on our walk across the fields.

In an idyllic setting, the church of St Botolph in Iken. `Built on a bluff above the River Alde where Saxon St Botolph came ashore and established his monastery in 654 AD, this church has one of the most beautiful locations in Suffolk` - the blurb reads, and they are probable right!

The monastery built by Botolph was destroyed by Viking raiders in the winter of AD 869-70 two centuries after his death but the foundations of a mid-Saxon timber-framed building have been found, thought to be Botolph’s original church just south of where his monastery stood. So origins go back more than 1300 years. They don’t come much older.

The church you see today is Norman with 15th century porch and tower and Victorian chancel. But it had to be repaired after the devastating fire of 1968 when a spark set the thatched roof alight.

The altar. I guess this is quite modern.

The great font, one of the best in the East Anglian style. The angels that alternate with the evangelistic symbols carry the instruments of the Passion. Today it was all decorated ready for a wedding.

Part of a stone cross that’s been dated back to the late 9th or early 10th century. Discovered in 1977, it’s thought this could be the lower part of a large decorated stone cross, a marker for Botolph’s original church or the only surviving relic of a later Saxon church.

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Butterflies at Bradfield Woods

A great Nature Reserve, not to far from home and one of our favourites. If you are into Geocaching as well, then this site has a great series. One of the main attractions of Bradfield Woods are the number of butterfly - especially the White Admiral - Limenitis camilla. And I got the picture! So, a few images taken in a stroll one morning. 

Comma 

Silver Washed Fritillary 

White Admiral - underwing 

White Admiral - Limenitis camilla 

Large Skipper 

Speckled Wood 

A lovely area to walk with many things arranged for youngsters at different times.  A series of Geocaches hidden around the Reserve, PLUS loads of nature in the form of birds and butterflies. What more could you want?

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The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

Any trip to Northumberland must include time on Lindisfarne or Holy Island as it is known. Obviously it has a long and varied history, but also it's a wonderful island to just follow the footpath around the coastal edge and marvel at the wildlife and soak up the peace and tranquility.

We have visited the island before, but a re-visit was today's objective - tides permitting! 

Lindisfarne Castle is really two buildings; the comfortable Edwardian holiday home with the Lutyens features and the cosy atmosphere is the obvious one as it is what we see today. But hiding behind all this is the old fort, dating from Tudor times and taking up three quarters of the Castle's history.

Lindisfarne Castle as we know it first appears in about 1550, but wasn't in any completed state until 1570. For the next three hundred years, the fort (as it was known then) was home to temporary garrisons of soldiers on detatchment from the larger force based at nearby Berwick. Their main job was to man the guns, watch the horizon for trouble, and try and stave of boredom with gunnery practice. Aside from a couple of incidents, the Castle could be said to have had a quiet military history through this period. The fact it was still standing when Edward Hudson discovered it in 1901 is testement to that. His friend the architect Edwin Lutyens was soon to dramatically change the building over the next few years, from a fort to a holiday home. 

Many of the features of the old fort were lost during the Lutyens renovation of 1903-1906 but if you delve a little deeper and don't accept what you see in front of you, parts of the old building reappear before you. It does require some imagination I can vouch!

In the Dining Room, for example, Lutyens created a new fireplace, laid a distinctive herringbone brick floor and carved out a huge window bay with tracery window in stone. He left untouched a bread oven and salt hole from the soldier's time (probably dating from the 16th-century) along with the low vertical walls which are about as old as anything in the Castle. The vaulted ceiling, installed in the 18th-century to bear the weight of a new gun battery above. 

Elsewhere there is the original staircase leading to the Upper Battery is a prominent feature along with the low ceilings of the western end of the building, and the surviving Victorian doors leading to the former gunpowder magazine - Lutyens' West Bedroom. 

The holiday home from the early twentieth century is the building most on show, and we tell the story of those who worked here, those who visited, and those who called the place home over a hundred years ago. For the best part of seventy years, Lindisfarne was so much more to so many people than a old fort on a crag.

Having taken images of these upturned boats, come sheds, on our previous trip in 2009, this time I took one of the more `used` ones.

A display of Red Valerian as seen from the castle path.

View of the village, priory ruins and harbour from the castle.

The lime kilns at Castle Point are a Scheduled Ancient Monument – a designation made in recognition of the national significance of the site. They are some of the largest examples of their kind anywhere in the country and certainly the largest actively-conserved kilns in the area.

Have the kids been busy? - piles of stones on the foreshore.

One of a series of `willow` wildlife dotted around the island.

A series of eight larger-than-life willow sculptures have taken up residence on points around the Lindisfarne Nature Trail. The sculptures were created by local artist and willow sculptor Anna Turnbull with help from 40 volunteers. The sculptures depict key species of the Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve, managed by Natural England, and include Brent Geese in flight, a creche of two female Eider ducks and their chicks and a flowering Lindisfarne Helleborine orchid.

The sculptures are situated on the Lindisfarne Nature Trail, a circular walk of approximately 3 miles, that loops from Holy Island village along to the Castle, then follows the former limekiln waggon way to the dunes of The Links. The trail returns to the village via the Straight Lonnen

Silverweed, and there was a lot of it about, is a creeping, trailing plant that can be found on rough grassland, roadside verges, sand dunes and waste ground. Its yellow flowers appear between June and August among the creeping mats of its silvery, downy leaves which remain all year-round.

Big sky with glorious clouds.

This white granite pyramid was one of the first daymark beacons built on mainland Britain. It was built between 1801 and 1810 by Trinity House.

The oldest building on Holy Island, the church of St Mary The Virgin. The only building that retains work from the Saxon period. 

The interior of the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin

The original wooden version of `Journey` in St Mary`s church. 

"Journey" is a wooden sculpture, carved from seven elm trees, by Fenwick Lawson (1999). The sculpture depicts the monks of Holy Island carrying the coffin of St. Cuthbert to safety and eventual rest in Durham Cathedral, c.875 AD, when Viking raiders threatened the island. The sculpture was exhibited in Durham Cathedral for a time and proved popular. Local people raised funds for a bronze casting of Journey, and this now stands in Millennium Square, in Durham. 

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Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh Castles

What to do on a squally day? - we decide to visit two of the great castles / ruins in the area. After all you can usually shelter in a castle if a shower appears. 

So, first stop was at the huge Bamburgh Castle. The 6th century Kings of Northumbria established Bamburgh as their capital, building a wooden stockade to create a stronghold on the existing Castle site. After being ransacked by the Vikings at the end of the 10th century, the Normans built a new castle on the site, the core of which remains today, and in the 12th century Bamburgh Castle became the property of Henry I, the reigning English monarch.

Next came the arrival of the Foster family, gifted the ruins by James 1st and then the subsequent acquisition by Lord Crewe and the formation of the Crewe Trustees. 

Finally the castle passed into the hands of the First Lord Armstrong, with the intention of creating a respite home he passed away before its restoration was complete and became the Armstrong family home. It is still owned by the Armstrong Family who opened it up to visitors in the mid 1900’s and remains to this day an icon of the North East of England.

As you can see, Bamburgh is a huge place. This image from the road passing through the village. The castle in fact covers around 9 acres in total. 

Northern Marsh Orchid seen in the dunes near Bamburgh 

The ruins of the twin tower keep of Dunstanburgh Castle. Originally the gatehouse. 

Built on the most magnificent scale, Dunstanburgh Castle stands on a remote headland in Northumberland. The walk toward it along the coast is worth it on its own. 

The castle was built at a time when relations between King Edward II and his most powerful baron, Earl Thomas of Lancaster, had become openly hostile. Lancaster began the fortress in 1313, and the latest archaeological research indicates that he built it on a far grander scale than was originally recognised, perhaps more as a symbol of his opposition to the king than as a military stronghold. 

Unfortunately the earl failed to reach Dunstanburgh when his rebellion was defeated, and was taken and executed in 1322. Thereafter the castle passed eventually to John of Gaunt, who strengthened it against the Scots by converting the great twin towered gatehouse into a keep - see above. 

The focus of fierce fighting during the Wars of the Roses, it was twice besieged and captured by Yorkist forces, but subsequently fell into decay. 

The Lilburn Tower, Dunstanburgh Castle 

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