Back to my homeland (part 3)

Days 1-4
Days 5-8

Day 9: Crowland, Lincolnshire.  This is where it all began, in a way. Our great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Sutton, came to Crowland at some point and married a young widow called Elizabeth Price.  She was from a long-established Crowland family by the name of Cherrington and had recently inherited a large sum of money from her wealthy uncle.  Joseph Sutton had a business in West Street in which he was variously and sometimes concurrently a grocer, draper and postmaster.

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This is where West Street meets South Street today. Few buildings at the beginning of West Street date as far back as 1840, when we know Joseph had his shop, but there are many other buildings further down the street that do. Since we don't know exactly where his shop was, we can only try to imagine how it looked based on what we can see now.

 The pub on the corner of North Street, bedecked in England flags for the 2010 World Cup, dates back to 1789. It faces Trinity Bridge - originally built to provide a dry crossing over three converging streams but now provides an intriguing focal point in the middle of the road. I can imagine generations of children playing on, under and around it.

This is North Street, as seen from the top of the bridge.

This small Fenland town is quiet, flat and has plenty of wide open space and isn't crowded with people and traffic.

At the South end of the town stands the church of Saints Mary Bartholomew and Guthlac which is built within the ruins of Croyland Abbey.

The thatched roof of the Copper Kettle Tea Room with its thatched tea cup abuts another building with ornate brickwork commonly found in houses of the 17th century.

Time for lunch at the Copper Kettle.

This is absolutely the best tea room in England.  Look at that. That was my lunch.  Then look at this:

All the cakes are freshly baked on the premises.  I had a slice of the chocolate and orange cake on the right, but I must say I would have loved to have tasted that lemon cake in the middle.  The tea room is housed in what was a Victorian pharmacy for the doctor who worked next door.

Now for more of Crowland.  The following are all photographs of West Street.

More of Crowland.

Next time, Croyland Abbey.