Chilly churches and bangers...

Our accommodation for last night and tonight is a bit of a comedown compared to the excellent Warren in Great Yarmouth. Not only that I think the walls must be paper thin because I could clearly hear the people in the next room at two o'clock this morning!!

We'd noticed a couple of stock cars in the car park last night and The Man and I were pleased to discover that they are racing here in Mildenhall starting at about one o'clock in the afternoon.

Bangers they are called here, and beat up bangers they are.

But before that we decided that we would take a jaunt to Castle Acre Priory which is according to the blurb on the back of the guide book

'The village of castle Acre is an extraordinary survival of a Norman planned settlement.'

For almost 450 years the now ruined priory was the home and workplace of monks and thier servants. It was refuge for pilgrims and a stopping point for royalty, clergy and the nobility.

Begun about 1090 it took almost 70 years to complete.

Even though The Man and I were rugged up well we got a bit chilly, The weather was very cold today with temperatures no more that four or five degrees. There were even a couple of flurries of snow. So if we were cold the life for these Cluniac monks must have been incredibly hard. In the draughty dormitories the monks, according to their religious custom, slept fully clothed on basic straw mattresses with little or no blankets. The lodgings of the prior were much more lavish and certainly more comfortable, and as the years went by successive priors added their own touches to the building including a huge fireplace and a bay window complete with stained glass windows decorated with the priors initials. So much for living a simple monastic life.

On our the drive back to Mildenhall we found a little café to have lunch. Home made leek and potato soup followed by toasted teacakes and coffee.

I thought that toasted teacakes were nothing more that tasted scones. How wrong could I be. They are actually toasted but crossless hot cross buns. Very yummy.

The temperature had risen all the way up to six degrees by the time The Man parked the car at the stockies, sorry bangers track.

Its many years since we've been to a track meet and it was great to watch the races and hear the motors roar. We were a bit perplexed by the amount of time taken between the race ending and the next starting. Back home in New Zealand the cars for the next race would start to be rolled out as the last of the damaged cars were towed out. With at least nine more races still to go at four o'clock we decided to call it a day and come back to the Bird in Hand for a warm up and a coffee.