The last of my posts from rural Norfolk is of a Shell House which we saw last night in a garden looking out over fields, made in the last couple of years with mussels sent in boxes from Cornwall and set in patterns:-
Binham Priory
We were bumbling along the byways of north Norfolk when we came across Binham Priory in a field on the edge of the village, built in the time of Prior Richard de Parco between 1226 and 1244, looking much as it does in early nineteenth-century engravings:-
Old Town Holt
No trip to Holt would be complete without calling in on Old Town in Bull Street to see Marie and any developments in the shop. It was all very ship-shape, as ever, and I just had time to record it before Marie went off to the catch the last post:-
Cold Press
Last time we were in Holt we discovered Cold Press, the nicest imaginable small gallery in a house in Albert Street which was previously a Methodist Chapel. It shows the work of Japanese craftsman artists, including Takahashi Kougei whose wooden beakers we bought last time:-
Houghton (1)
We called in at Houghton for lunch and to see the James Turrell exhibition, which is more extensive than any Turrells I have seen before. The park was surprisingly empty as compared to two years ago for the Walpole exhibition, beautifully looked after, and still with the avenues laid out by Charles Bridgeman in the late 1720s.
These are the stables:-
South Creake
Noon struck as we arrived at South Creake church, surrounded by cottages with spectacular hollyhocks:-
Creake Abbey
We started our Norfolk tour at Creake Abbey, originally St. Mary of the Meadows, an Augustinian priory founded in 1227 by Sir Robert de Nerford. There was a fire in 1484 and the Abbey was dissolved after a plague in 1506, but it has reasonably well-preserved monastic remains:-
Burnham Norton
I went for a quick early morning constitutional across the fields and marshes towards the sea with the boats and harbour of Burnham Overy Staithe in the distance:-
The Man with a Hawk
I was in early to greet visitors from the US. I was pleased to meet the man with a hawk who comes to clear the courtyard of pigeons:-
Cereal
We have subscribed to a magazine called Cereal. The first two issues have appeared (vols. 4 and 6 as the others are apparently out of print). It’s a magazine devoted to beautiful photography of places one might not be able to visit, ecological in intent, about trees and crops, in one issue covering the Brecon Beacon, Vancouver and Singapore, like a National Geographic for the new century. It’s interesting for the quality of its production and the fact that as most print media declines, it’s still possible to produce a magazine so purely aesthetic.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
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