Heritage in East Anglia
Fantastic museums, amazing treasure houses, maritime treats and Britain's largest collection of cathedrals - enjoy the Heritage of East Anglia
Explore and discover the region's treasure houses
Visit East Anglia and one of our historic houses - where you can wander through rooms full of family artefacts and priceless heirlooms. There are so many to choose from - the Jacobean gems of Audley End House (nr. Saffron Walden) and Blickling Hall (nr. Aylsham); the eccentric oval-shaped Ickworth at Horringer (nr. Bury St. Edmunds); and 18th C. Woburn Abbey, home of the Dukes of Bedford.
Palladian-style Holkham Hall (nr. Wells-next-the-Sea) forms part of a great agricultural estate. Simliarly Wimpole Hall at Arrington (nr. Royston) is a magnificent Georgian mansion, home to rare breeds. Turn back the clock at 15th C. Oxburgh Hall, Oxborough (nr. Swaffham); or under the gaze of the gothic gargoyles and turrets at Knebworth House (nr. Stevenage). Climb up England's tallest Tudor gatehouse - Layer Marney Tower (nr. Colchester); then re-live the period with the fantastic annual re-creations of Kentwell Hall at Long Melford.
Jacobean Hatfield House is where Queen Elizabeth I spent her childhood in the adjacent Old Palace. Whilst at Royal Sandringham (nr. King's Lynn), the present Queen has her country retreat. Nearby Houghton Hall was built by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime Minister. See the revolving summerhouse and personal effects of playwright George Bernard Shaw at Shaw's Corner in Ayot St. Lawrence (nr. Welwyn). Whilst restoration on a grand scale can be admired at Grade II listed Hylands House at Chelmsford and Moggerhanger Park (nr. Bedford) designed by Sir John Soane.
Re-live the East Anglia's rich and turbulent past
Climb down into a 5,000 year old Neolithic flint mine at Grimes Graves (nr. Brandon); then visit the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn - home to the famous Bronze Age timber circle of Seahenge, discovered nearby in 1998. Get a taste of everyday ancient life with the re-constructed buildings at the Flag Fen Archaeological Park in Peterborough, or the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village (nr. Bury St. Edmunds). Don't miss the famous royal burial site of Anglo-Saxon kings at Sutton Hoo (nr. Woodbridge).
For Roman times, head to Colchester Castle Museum to try on a toga; or ride aboard Queen Boudica's chariot in the Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery There are wonderful Roman mosaics to admire at Verulamium Museum in St. Albans, plus the only completely exposed Roman Theatre in Britain. The Norman invasion of 1066 brought the region some spectacular castles, such
as Castle Rising (nr. King's Lynn); Orford; Framlingham; and Hedingham at Castle Hedingham. England's best preserved Cluniac monastic site can be visited at Castle Acre Priory (nr. Swaffham); whilst the Knights Templar settlement at Cressing Temple (nr. Braintree) has two superb 13th C. timber-framed barns.
