Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, UK
info@capitalofthefens.org.uk

The ‘Fenland Five’ Museums and more to visit 2017

The ‘Fenland Five’ Museums and more to visit 2017

While this column was started with Wisbech in mind, to counter the often negative press, I do of course enjoy and wish to promote other cultural places and activities in the area. Where are your favourite places to go to learn something new, relax and enjoy? There are the “Fenland Five” museums of course – Wisbech and Fenland, Octavia Hill’s Birthplace House, March, Chatteris and Whittlesey. Then there are places like the Fenland Aviation Centre, Fossils Galore in March, and King’s Dyke Nature Reserve at Whittlesey where you can collect your own fossils. Just over the border in Norfolk, there’s a real Castle, owned by descendants of those that built it, it’s a great place to visit for all the family.

Searching from a national level, you’ll easily find our National Trust and English Heritage properties, also RSPB and WWT reserves. We are lucky to have these charities protecting so much of our ancient landscapes. I was at a conference recently, organised by the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership, which brought together a number of organisations and people who work in the area to debate what should be the response to climate change. It was really interesting to hear from farmers, conservationists, and those who work on the water. There is a lot more to keeping the land viable for farming, living and tourism than I realised, which is embarrassing as I’ve lived in the area for over 20 years, more if you count my time in South Cambs! So that’s a mission for me this year, learn more about how fen land works.
The photo is one I took at the conference in Ely Cathedral, a beautiful place not far from us. Ely has its own museum too of course, with a great display about Hereward the Wake. A fascinating story now being brought back to us by David Maile, who will be talking about Hereward at Ely Museum tonight (Wednesday March 15th), from 7pm.
I’ve skimmed through quite a few ideas for visits here, I hope. Now Spring has sprung it’s time to get out there; many smaller museums are open again, and being out and about on reserves will bring some great photo opportunities of our beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Feel free to tweet them to me @redbcreative! I’ll add links to all the mentioned places on the website.

 

Lorena can be contacted via lorena@redbarncreative.org.uk

www.redbarncreative.org.uk