Tag: cambridge

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Anglesey Abbey #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I’ve only really done National Trust visits in the last ten years, I did visit Fountains Abbey in the early 1990s, and joined the National Trust, but don’t think I went to any other property that year. Most of my visits to properties have entered around the South West, the Midlands, and the Thames Valley. My plan for this year is to visit properties that I haven’t been to before and ones that are in other parts of the country.

On a recent visit to Cambridgeshire I decided I would make what I thought would be a quick visit to Anglesey Abbey.

Anglesey Abbey

A Jacobean-style house full of rich history, from a monastic priory to 20th-century home.

Current saving £73.30
One adult £18.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £18.00
Cumulative saving £182.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £91.30

Though I grew up in Cambridge, when I was there I never went to Anglesey Abbey and I don’t recall even hearing about it back then. However back then I wasn’t really into visiting country houses or ruins.

I parked my car, and put it on charge, I liked how there were EV chargers in the car park. After scanning my card at reception I headed out to walk to the house. At this point I bumped into an old colleague, so we chatted for a while.

I did think the house was a little TARDIS like. I honestly thought we would see a few rooms on the ground floor and then a few rooms on the first floor. However the house appeared to go on and on. You could virtually see all the rooms in the house. A couple of times I was completely thrown, as I walked around the house been surprised by various rooms. I walked into the library and was not expecting the huge open space of the library. It was a similar experience to the gallery spaces as well. As for the dungeon like experience of the dining room, another kind of space I wasn’t expecting. Then there was the bank like vault in the pantry!

I really enjoyed walking around the house and seeing all the different rooms and furniture. As with most National Trust visits, the volunteers were friendly, forthcoming and very knowledgeable. The house itself has a fascinating history and it was a wonderful place to visit.

As well as the house there are some lovely grounds to walk around and an old mill as well. It’s certainly a place I would like to visit again.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Trinity Lane, Cambridge

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

This is the view of Trinity Lane in Cambridge, taken with an iPhone 13 in March 2025.

This is the view of Trinity Lane in Cambridge, taken with an iPhone 13 in December 2023.

I have now taken this shot a fair few times.

I grew up in Cambridge, but moved away when I went to university in York. I remember rarely visiting the University of Cambridge as a youngster, why would I? However I did do some specialist maths classes at Trinity Hall College, so would walk down Trinity Lane.

This is a photograph of Trinity Lane taken in April 2023 with an iPhone 13.

Trinity Lane

This photograph was taken in July 2022 with an iPhone 13.

This was taken in the middle of the day in bright sunshine.

I stayed over in Cambridge back in January 2020 I took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

I took this with an iPhone 8 in late afternoon I did edit and enhance the image with Snapseed, but the iPhone was able to deal with the low light conditions so much better.

It was back in March 2009 when I was at a JISC RSC Eastern event in Cambridge I did take the time the day before to walk around the town and took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

It was taken in the early evening with a Sony DSC-W53 camera, which to be honest struggled with the low light conditions.

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Cambridge #50places2025

I wasn’t sure if I should include Cambridge on my #50places2025 list. There were two reasons why, firstly I grew up in Cambridge in the 1970s and early 1980s, as a result it’s my home town. Can I count visiting a place I know well, as a visit? Secondly this”visit” was rather short, I arrived the evening before and was attending a conference at Downing College.

I did write about the #50places2025 series of blog posts that:

Each visit has to be more than just seeing a place, when I work in London for example, I often see St Pauls’ Cathedral during a lunchtime walk, but that to me is not visiting that place.

However as I had arrived the night before and was up early I had arrived in the centre of Cambridge using the Park and Ride quite early, so I took the time to explore the city before heading off to Downing College for the conference. 

I also spent some time travelling up and down Newmarket Road, I was staying in a hotel just off the A14 (or as I like to call it the A45), so drove down Newmarket Road and also took the Park & Ride bus up and down it as well. There have been some changes on that road, the old brickworks has become a retail park, whilst the location of the gas towers is now a Tesco. There were some places which hadn’t changed. The Cambridge United football ground is still in the same place.

I also saw The Leper Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene from the bus. I did a school visit there and we made a model of it. That was primary school.

After catching the Park & Ride bus to the centre of Cambridge I had a short time to do some exploring before heading off to Downing College for the conference I was attending.

In some ways Cambridge never changes and sometimes it keeps changing. I remember Robert Sayle department store (part of the John Lewis partnership) which has now disappeared to be replaced by a “properly” branded John Lewis shop in the Grand Arcade shopping centre. Lion Yard which was built in the 1970s and was refurbished the late 1990s. This is still home to the public library, and I remember going there to borrow books. It was also home to a WHSmith. The top floor of which was devoted to music.

The colleges of the university probably haven’t changed that much over the last hundred years and I popped over to photograph Trinity Lane for my photography series.

I walked along Kings Parade to get to Downing College for my conference.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Kings College Chapel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

As I had noted I had taken this view of Kings College Chapel quite a few times, so on a recent visit to Cambridge in March 2025, I took a photograph, using an iPhone 13,  of the chapel. Well I tried, as there was an event next to it and there was some fencing in the way.

I then raised my phone over the fencing and tried to take a photograph, which wasn’t quite the same, but shows what was happening.

On a visit to Cambridge in December 2023 I took an intentional photograph of Kings College Chapel as I had taken two other similar photographs of the chapel unintentionally.

I had also taken an intentional similar shot when I was in Cambridge in April 2023. Then it had more scaffolding, and the tree in front had some spring leaves on it.

On a visit to Cambridge,  I had taken this photograph of Kings College Chapel in July 2022.

I had been looking at posts on this blog with the cambridge tag when I noticed that back in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) I had taken a virtually identical photograph of Kings College Chapel.

Kings College Chapel

Posted on

Then and Now Take Two – Kings College Chapel

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

On a recent visit to Cambridge in December 2023 I took an intentional photograph of Kings College Chapel as I had taken two other similar photographs of the chapel unintentionally.

I had also taken an intentional similar shot when I was in Cambridge in April 2023. Then it had more scaffolding, and the tree in front had some spring leaves on it.

On a visit to Cambridge,  I had taken this photograph of Kings College Chapel in July 2022.

I had been looking at posts on this blog with the cambridge tag when I noticed that back in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) I had taken a virtually identical photograph of Kings College Chapel.

Kings College Chapel

Posted on

Then and Now Take Two – Trinity Lane, Cambridge

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

This is the view of Trinity Lane in Cambridge, taken with an iPhone 13.

I have now taken this shot a fair few times.

I grew up in Cambridge, but moved away when I went to university in York. I remember rarely visiting the University of Cambridge as a youngster, why would I? However I did do some specialist maths classes at Trinity College, so would walk down Trinity Lane.

This is a photograph of Trinity Lane taken in April 2023 with an iPhone 13.

Trinity Lane

This photograph was taken in July 2022 with an iPhone 13.

This was taken in the middle of the day in bright sunshine.

I stayed over in Cambridge back in January 2020 I took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

I took this with an iPhone 8 in late afternoon I did edit and enhance the image with Snapseed, but the iPhone was able to deal with the low light conditions so much better.

It was back in March 2009 when I was at a JISC RSC Eastern event in Cambridge I did take the time the day before to walk around the town and took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

It was taken in the early evening with a Sony DSC-W53 camera, which to be honest struggled with the low light conditions.

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University of Cambridge

I was attending a conference in Cambridge, and having arrived, I took a walk around the heart of the city centre and took some photographs. During the time in the city as I walked to and from the venue and my accommodation I took more photographs. These are some additional photographs of various university buildings.

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More of Cambridge

I was attending a conference in Cambridge, and having arrived, I took a walk around the heart of the city centre and took some photographs. During the time in the city as I walked to and from the venue and my accommodation I took more photographs.