Easter in Little Hadham

We anticipated Easter to be a lovely peaceful resting time. And that's almost what we got... plus a 2yr and a 3yr old. Here we are wandering the public footpaths in East Anglia between rolling hills filled with tiny black lambs and trees in full blossom.
We arrived in Little Hadham on Friday morning. Little Hadham is just near Stansted Airport, North of London. We'd been warned by everyone about spending Good Friday in the Linear Carpark (otherwise known as the M25 - the major motoway circling London). To avoid this we drove from Southampton to Stansted via Oxford for breakfast. The family in Little Hadham thought we were crazy! Jane's Grandpy's cousin owns 600 acres in Little Hadham. His three grown sons now run different aspects of the farm. More about them later.On Easter Saturday we caught up with good mates from Jane's St Hildas days, Fi and Davo. Fi is working at a school just 8 miles from Little Hadham. They'd booked Jamie Oliver's parent's pub for lunch. The food was spectacular and the atmosphere nicely relaxed for long hours of catching up. No famous faces were spotted but we did pick up a signed recipe book.

Whilst on the farm Dorothy and Robert put us up. They have apparently been planning a trip to Oz for many years but us Aussie relies are never there they say! On Sunday we met the youngest and middle son and his wife and two children. Pictured above are Wendy and Ruby (2) and Jemima, the biting puppy.

Robert (Right) and Albert(3) (Left).
David (middle Collins boy), Albert, Dorothy and Blossom the Shetland pony, bought especially for Albert to learn the ways of the farmyard.

Jane and Albert on a stroll through the fields. We'd had enough of piggy back rides for now (Well jane had but Albert could go on riding forever).

Dorothy and Robert in there kitchen. The house was built in 1503 and they've done a lot of work on this section. The cupboards were made from the old horse stable.

Mark the eldest son and his wife Jane have recently had a beautiful baby girl called Florence. We had dinner with them on Friday night but Florence was sleeping and we were so busy talking we forgot the camera. We'll go back soon we hope.

On Monday we drove via the country road to Cambridge just 40 mins north. Firstly we had to visit the fudge shop (which Jane thinks makes the best fudge in the world). then we took a punt boat ride along the Cam River. We passed by the back of many of the major colleges and learnt a lot of history. And we saw the place were Harry Potter learnt to fly in the first movie! There were plently of people trying to punt themselves along but we thought the weather was a tad cold for a swim in early April.

This is the Mathematical bridge. It is an amazing piece of physics because it is not attached to the bank at either end, as in it just rests there with no screws to hold it. Each plank distributes the weight equally. Its perfectly safe to walk over.

This is one of the colleges. A little more grand than St Hildas! The photo doesn't do it justice but hte only thing not in perfect symitry is the eagle sitting above the main entrance. His head is turned to the left. Everything else lines up in straight lines. In fact the residents were asked not to leave their windows open so as not to disturb the picture and in the past they were fined if they did.

This library on the left was designed by Christopher Wren. It holds the original drawing of Pooh Bear along with many other famous books. The library is part of Trinity College where the famous race around the quadrangle (featured in " Chariot's of Fire") is held every year.

This is the Round Church, the second oldest church in Cambridge, built in the 1100's. We started a walking tour from here that took us through several major college chapels and taught us a lot about the amazing history of this university town. We learnt about the Christian Reformation and Isaac Newton and many others.

On the right is a building with special significance to the phrase "daylight robbery". At the time of building the government taxed builders for the number and size of windows in a building. After completion the owners found they couldn't afford the tax and had some of their windows boarded up or bricked in. Hence the expression " daylight robbery"!!

And sadly we did have to come home and go back to work to save up for the next trip! Here's Jane in her usual Theatre scrubs with fellow wise radiographer, Patricia.