Eriswell

We are staying at an Airbnb in the village where we went to school from 1956-1959. Our Airbnb hosts, Andrew and Valerie, have been great. Andrew picked us up at the train station as this is a difficult place to get to. This morning we went with them to Ely Cathedral for worship. Their grandson was singing in the choir.

The Bishop processed in with two women at the start. I presume the women were priests. The Bishop is quite tall, and he came in wearing the tall hat called a miter and carrying a wooden shepherd’s crook. He started his eulogy by relating a story: he had been seated next to the queen at a dinner, and she asked him if he’d had enough to eat. He said yes, and she replied that “there is quite a bit of you.” The choristers, the congregation singing hymns, backed by a huge pipe organ, all fabulous.

Andrew (Airbnb host) has been carting us all over the place, and we all went to eat lunch at “The Packhorse Inn.” It was excellent!

According to Open Domesday, Eriswell was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Lackford and the county of Suffolk.It had a recorded population of 26 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 40% of settlements recorded in Domesday.” The origins of this church are 13th century.

This evening Pearl and her daughter stopped by the cottage, and we talked about Eriswell and the school.

Tomorrow we continue our history walk by visiting the museum of the 493 Bomb Group in Debach.