We happened upon this impressive manor house and decided to look into it. This was at East Barsham.
There were signs that gave the impression it was open for tours, but we soon found out that the house was closed
and indeed for sale! I think someone gave up on the upkeep of this grand estate.

The specifics: 'For sale 8 bedroom detached house Fakenham Road, East Barsham, Fakenham, Norfolk, NR21
Purported to have been built in or around 1520, Barsham Manor House has played host over the last 5 centuries to
many guests, from monarchs, knights, politicians and celebrities to latter day rock legends. Its most famous guest was undoubtedly King Henry VIII, who stayed here on at least 5 separate occasions (never with the same wife!) whilst visiting
the nearby shrine to our Lady of Walsingham (see my report further down) and, whilst The Manor's construction has
always been attributed to Sir Henry Fermor, Henry VIII once referred to it as "my small country palace in Barsham."
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/

Walsingham Abbey was our next planned visit and we found Walsingham village to be nice little place with
a few other things of interest as well.

The pump was erected in the 16th century. Stones of the destroyed Augustinian Priory were used to construct it.
The well supplied water to a large part of the village.

The grounds provide for a nice shaded stroll through some woodlands with a small river running through it.

Williamsons Furniture Store and Former Prison.
The mill housed at some point prisoners who were forced to work treadmills. When the prison (Bridewell) closed in 1861 the use of treadmills for grinding ceased. The purchaser of the site, Miles Brown, endeavoured to maintain the mill activity by steam power. That chimney was built when the treadmills were replaced with steam power and is dated
to 1861, it came from an old steam mill. Unfortunately the enterprise failed very quickly and this left the chimney
still standing, as the usual weakness caused by soot on the chimney's inside did not have time to build up. en.wikipedia.org:_Walsingham

I hope to revisit Walsingham some day, I liked the Café / Secondhand bookstore, there was a nice 'vintage store'
where we bought something for the garden plus there is a Light Railway Line here I might want to visit.

Fine intricate decorations

This day we visited 3 abbeys in various stages of decay and ruin, all very different and enjoyable.
But enough is enough!

Our visit to the 100th Bomb Group memorial Museum, near Diss in Norfolk, was better than expected.
A very fine museum on the 'Bloody Hundreth', who carried out their WW2 bomb raids over Germany against heavy
losses. I have made a report on my ENGLAND 2018 aviation page.

Audley End House slipped through our fingers last year because when we showed up at the gate it was closed for filming.
But this time we were more fortunate. These ornate interiors are not really my thing, but I decided to have a look inside anyway. Esspecially when I learned that photography was forbidden and this has an effect on me as a red rag to a bull...

The observing stewards could not prevent me from taking a few photos; I don't understand the objection.

I love libraries!

The best part of our visit, I thought, was the demonstration of birds of prey here in the grounds of Audley End House!

I loved the explanation that these people are not trainers: one cannot train birds of prey.
The Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug; NL: Sakervalk) is a large species of falcon. This species breeds from central Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China. [Wikipedia]

This owl ate from the demonstrator's hand or landed on something thrown on the ground.

www.owlpages.com/owls

A ball is sweeped and the bird recognizes it as prey. When it catches it, there is a reward in it.
This is the Harris's hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus; NL: Woestijnbuizerd) formerly known as the
Bay-winged Hawk or Dusky Hawk (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris's_hawk)
This medium-large hawk is roughly intermediate in size between a Peregrine Falcon and a Red-tailed Hawk.

Perigrine Falcon, also known as the Duck Hawk in North America:
[
This Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus; NL: Slechtvalk) went for its first demonstration flight and after its
take off it refused to return! It ignored the whistle and the waving, enjoying its freedom. But it has a transmitter...
Thus ended the demonstration.

A game of cricket in the blazing heat. Others seem to think of better ways to spend the time.

Beautiful sculptures!

A lot of work must go into tending these flowerbeds.

There were some opportunities to photograph some birdlife.
This is a house sparrow, male (Passer domesticus; NL: Huismus, man)

What a fine day, what a fine summer!

A visit to a modest air show, I should say a 'Fly In', the Air-Britain 2018 Fly-In at North Weald airfield.
I have a pictorial report on my ENGLAND 2018 aviation page.

After we had overcome problems to get our car parked in the centre of Colchester, we visited Colchester Castle.
It is a fine example of a largely complete Norman castle. At one and a half times the size of the Tower of
London's White Tower, Colchester's keep (46 m × 34 m) is the largest ever built in Britain and the largest
surviving example in Europe!

It took me by quite a surprise to find the interior of the castle outfitted as a very modern museum.

Colchester: Britain's oldest recorded town!

In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, the Royalist leaders Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were
executed just to the rear of Colchester castle. Local legend has it that grass will not grow on the spot on
which they fell. A small obelisk now marks the point.

A stroll along Colchester's High Street

Via Holland on Sea...

Another visit to Waterstones, without purchases this time.
Prior to our visit we had visited Chelmsford, for the bookshops of Foyles (modern & meagre: no luck) and
Waterstones (much better selection, bought one Nicci French title of my shopping list).
Amazing to note how fast an author like Ruth Rendell has disappeared from the shelves!

Most days we had concluded our planned visits around 15:00 or so and we subsequently went looking for refreshments
in a nice country pub. But I found that they were not always easy to locate! Sometimes we went off the road to a
village and found modern villages don't seem to have have pubs! And when we finally had located a pub with a tv
tuned to football (sometimes the punters preferred a cricket match and we had to go elsewhere for the World
Championship 2018 football match; or the pub did not have a tv for the public at all), we only got to see the dying
minutes of the second half. Fortunately there was often extra time issued to come to a conclusion in the match,
even a penalty shoot out at times and we could finish our drinks at leisure.

Btw, the Marlborough Head in Dedham (an AONB area) was a pub that did not have a tv.

Orford Ness I had planned twice previously, but this time things worked out better. That is to say, it was (again)
too windy to see much birdlife, but the structures present here make for a fascinating hike and some fine photography. See my full page report: ORFORD NESS EXPLORED

A practice fly-by of RAF aircraft for the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force concluded our visit at
Orford Ness and my travel report.The heat haze made the photos blur, but it allows me to CONGRATULATE the RAF!

EXTERNAL LINKS:
en.wikipedia.org:_Castles_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland
www.english-heritage.org.uk