Today Donna and I visited a beautiful garden and a mediaeval castle while the others explored Orford Ness. Back at home we ate a simple but enjoyable meal, then Steve and I walked into town to see the film 'Senna'.
We drove to Helmingham Hall where there is a fine old house and a lovely series of gardens. The house was built from 1520 as a half-timbered structure but in Georgian times the lower level was faced with brick and the upper levels with matching tiles.The house itself is not open to the public as the Tollemache family still live there, but we spent an interesting morning in the gardens.
The house is moated, and the walled garden also has a moat around it, surely a very unusual feature!We ate in the small restaurant in the old stables, then drove to Framlingham to look at the castle. Like so many British castles this one was badly damaged during the Civil War. There is plenty left to see, however, and the uppermost level of the curtain wall has been repaired suffiently to make it possible to walk right the way round. The views are magnificent.
There was a re-enactment of the Battle of Agincourt going on in the castle grounds. Visiting children were invited to play the part of the English while the adults took the role of the French. There was a lot of laughter as the adults were frequently made to look silly by the man in charge of proceedings. But it was all good fun and very educational into the bargain.Steve and I both loved the film 'Senna'. It consisted mainly of TV footage from the 1980s and 90s supplemented by snippets of amateur film and some stills. But the poor image quality was more than compensated for by the strength of the story, told as it happened by the people who were there.
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