Homes and Gardens ... and Wine

A Day Trip to Ely Cathedral by Train

Every now and then our cathedrals put on a show of some sort. Sometimes they are connected with the festivals of the Christian faith, or with the history of the Church, and sometimes they just put things on because they have the space and facilities required for a show of some sort and can make money for their mission or the upkeep of their historic buildings. A festival we visited in the summer was one of the latter, nothing directly to do with Ely Cathedral's mission at all, but great fun for all and well worth the ticket price. This was the Home and Garden Show, using the cathedral grounds and the interior of the cathedral at Ely.

Ely is an easy train ride from our home in Stamford, and just as easy from Cambridge, Peterborough, Leicester or even Birmingham by the very same train. In fact, Ely is an easy train ride from lots and lots of places, even London by a different train, being a junction of lines from all over England. So we were soon there. It is a pleasant ride most of the way, through the Welland valley out of Stamford passing farms and villages, then alongside the East Coast Main Line to Peterborough before passing under it after Peterborough station and running alongside the River Nene out of Peterborough before crossing the fens to finish beside the River Great Ouse. Approaching Ely is always a joy: we look out for the cathedral and then watch it appear to revolve as we swing around the city to enter the station from the north, having joined the lines from Kings Lynn and from Norwich.

From Ely railway station we walked down to the marina area and had lunch siting in the warm sunshine outside one of the pubs down by the river. This really is a very pleasant place and it would be easy to while away a whole afternoon here! But the show was calling (and we had paid for the tickets!), so off we went when the time came and queued at the entrance gate.

It was a really hot and sunny day and there was not a lot of shade in the outdoor parts of the show, but there were plenty of stands offering samples of wines, beers, gins, soft drinks and ice-cream from various local and regional producers, which came in very handy.

We visited the stand of the Mallard Point vineyard and distillery which is local to us at home and whose gin we have bought in the past, and there we bought a couple of tumblers to bring home as a souvenir. Like their returnable gin bottles these are made of aluminium rather than glass and are painted the same garter blue colour that LNER painted Mallard and most other A4 locomotives. We use them in summer when dining or drinking outside to reduce the chance of broken glass in the yard.

We took business cards from a number of other stands - not all drinks producers, queued for and enjoyed an ice-cream and then went to look at displays elsewhere, in a courtyard garden and inside the cathedral. A bar had been set up in the last chapel but we did not call there.

After a cup of tea and cake at the Almonry restaurant it was time to make or way to the station for our train home. The train was indicated on time and by the time all the crowd heading to Ely from Cambridge had left, there was plenty of space for us to find seats together for our smooth and comfortable ride home. Another super day trip to Ely.

Ironically it is much quicker and easier for us to visit Ely Cathedral (or Leicester, or Peterborough) than out own cathedral in Lincoln which requires a change of train and takes a lot longer. Even Birmingham Cathedral is easier to reach than Lincoln!