Ancient & Modern

We use a garage in Attleborough for our car's services & MOTs - the garage has the correct equipment but we then have to occupy ourselves while the work is done. Today we decided to catch a bus to Wymondham as, apart from taking part in the New Year's Day 10K there a few years back, we didn't actually know the town. We chose a walk which took us out to the south of the town, taking in two different county nature reserves, The Lizard and Toll's Meadow, both in the valley of the River Tiffey but with contrasting arrays of plant species, and finally brought us back back past the ancient Market Cross and the Abbey.

Originally there was an abbey at the eastern end joined to the parish church to the west. The ruined octagonal tower shown in the photo was part of the original abbey; the other abbey buildings were demolished after the dissolution. The square tower was constructed at the parish end of the building as a bell tower - the church with two towers is a well-known landmark which we could see across the fields when we were some distance away and it proved to be quite impressive, particularly the stonework, when we were close up. As it was damp & grey - we'd had  showers throughout our walk - we didn't linger for too long today, but can look forward to exploring further on another trip.