Anglesey Abbey, Gardens, and Lode Mill

Tuesday we woke up to sunny skies and mild temperatures, so Fiona and I decided to make the 8 mile bike ride out to Anglesey Abbey, gardens, and Lode Mill. The UK’s National Cycle Network is really one of the things that makes this country a step above in my book. There are so many great places that we can cycle to without ever having to bike on the road. And when the Network does include riding on the road, extreme forethought goes into choosing roads that will be quiet and infrequently traveled by traffic. Below are just a few snapshots of our ride out to Anglesey Abbey through the countryside.

The names of pubs here are always so entertaining! Fiona especially liked this one we passed by:

After a beautiful bike ride (with one major navigational error on my part that added a couple miles to the trip - oops!), we arrived and grabbed a quick lunch in the visitors center cafe so we could make it over to Lode Mill for the 1:00pm operating demonstration. Set on the edge of the estate property, the mill has been in operation since the 18th century. In 1900, the mill was purchased by the Bottisham and Lode Cement and Brick Company and was converted from grinding corn to grinding cement. Later, about a decade after purchasing Anglesey Abbey, Lord Fairhaven purchased the mill back from the cement company and restored it to its original operations of corn grinding.

Today the National Trust offers two 5-minute demonstrations of the grinding process each day. During the demonstration they say that they can only operate it for such short periods of time because it otherwise produces more flour than they can sell! We learned that unlike most mills, it is not rushing water that powers the mill (East Anglia is not known for its powerful rivers!), but rather large “buckets” that fill, lower, and pull the mills gaskets to turn them. In other words it is the weight of the water, not its flowing that the mill utilizes. Here the man is pulling the lever to let the water start flowing into the mill which begins the gears behind him turning:

Upstairs, whole corn kernels flow in from a wooden shoot and are dropped between the spinning grinding stones:

Finished corn flour:

Fiona making flour the hard way:

After exhausting ourselves making flour, we continued on the Anglesey Abbey. It was huge and beautiful. I can’t even imagine living with this kind of opulence.  The home’s final owner, 1st Lord Fairhaven originally of Fairhaven, MA, used his wealth to indulge his interests in history, art, and garden design, and to lead an eighteenth-century lifestyle at the house. Having never married or had children, when he died in 1966 he left the abbey to the National Trust so that the house and gardens could “represent an age and way of life that was quickly passing.” It really was interesting to see what life for the wealthy was like in the 1700s.

Old fashioned scrabble game!

Fiona was so excited to find a spiral stair case that she was actually allowed to climb. They are everywhere in the colleges we tour, but are always marked as ‘private.’

Lord Fairhaven’s love of garden design was also apparent on the 98-acre grounds. In addition to the many beautifully landscaped gardens, there were also miles of wooded and grassy walking paths that I could absolutely see lords and ladies strolling down.

The back of the property has been left relatively undeveloped with primarily thickly wooded areas. Some of these areas have been cleared and made into really great activities for kids. This one was Fiona’s favorite - “Den Building.” Basically thousands of sticks and branches had been collected from the woods and left in big piles for kids to use to construct forts among the surrounding trees. We had a blast making ours!

There was also a neat playground constructed completely from wood reclaimed from the grounds.

Once we finished checking out the playground, we strolled through the pretty meadows and back to our bikes so we could make our way back to Cambridge.

Definitely a worthwhile outing. We were impressed start to finish!