Sept 21 Oxburgh Hall & Gooderstone Water Grdens

Paid a visit to Oxburgh Hall.  Built in 1457 (or thereabouts) the house has survived largely intact...although there was some substantial renovations carried out to parts of the house in the Victorian era. Apparently King Henry 7th slept there one night. So much fuss is made of that. However the most interesting feature was the  Priest hole. The family were staunch Roman Catholics and in the time of Elizabeth 1st that was not a good faith to adhere to. The mass was banned as were Priests . The family did have a priest on hand so they had a special hiding place made for him. It is a tiny room hidden under the clothes closet...to find it you have to lift a well camouflaged trap door in the floor. Inside the hole there is no light and very little air. I (Ross) slid into the hole....but it was well lit and the trap door remained open. The house is surrounded by a moat and the descendants of the original family still live in a section of the house.....most of the house and all the gardens are owned by the National Trust.  

We then went to visit the Gooderstone Water Gardens. Sometime ago a farmer decided to convert a very marshy a paddock into a series of waterholes and then proceeded to build a garden around them. Quite a delightful place...a little untidy by English standards but okay for us.