Echoes of the past
New York’s Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore...”
I heard the faint sound of her famous invitation while touring the coastal areas of Suffolk, Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. There were so many fascinating echoes and ghosts of times past that, by the end of it, they seemed to characterise my tour.
As I drove through tranquil Suffolk villages, I felt I was heading along rows of life-size Lilliput Lane models. Quaint cottages have roses rambling over flint and brick walls below thatched dormer windows and roofs. There are churches and war memorials on village greens, cricket pavilions and community shops/post offices.
These villages, often with wrought-iron signs proudly displaying their names, are interspersed with nature reserves. Then, on looking and listening more closely, there are the signs and sounds of what’s gone before.
My first stop, Haw Wood Farm, northeast of Saxmundham, was within easy cycling distance of RSPB Minsmere. Prepare to find turtle doves among the trees here, too!
Minsmere (featured on BBC’s and ) is so peaceful, as if one’s stepped into a different world, with the breeze
