Motored over to Ely this morning for a sibling lunch with Ann's three brothers and their partners.
Lunched at the Fire Engine house - the meal was as good as ever- in one sense rather better, in that when the time came to deal with the bill, Michael, David and Tim refused to let me pay our quarter on the grounds that it was Ann's birthday (her 77th !!!!!) later in the week, and this was their joint birthday present to her- very civil of them and much appreciated. After lunch we set out from Ely at about 3.30 p.m.
Turned off the A14 this side of Bury Saint Edmund's and came home by the back roads and lanes. Somewhere near the village of Drinkstone (strange name for a village- must look it up) We saw an early (well, 18th century, anyway) post windmill,
and, about 100 to a 150 yards from the post mill, a rather rarer (but slightly later)
smock mill. Why they should have been built so near to each other, I don't know so can't say - but interesting.
A few miles further we came across Saint Mary's Church Gedding, which dates from the 12 century. It's a pretty little church, with some 15th century pews inside. It's a bit of a job to find this church, but it's well worth the effort.
Fom the Churchyard can be seen, about half a mile or so away, the below photographed, Gedding Hall. It was built around the middle of the 1400s.
3 comments:
Hi Mike, Drinkstone is mentioned in the Domesday book as Drencestuna held by the Abbey of St. Etheldreda at Ely. (It was worth £2 in 1066, about £5 in 1070, and £3 in 1086 to the Abbott).
The Dictionary of British Place-names places it in the Thedwastre hundred and records its name as Drincestuna c. 1050 and Drencestuna in 1086 meaning Farmstead of a man called Drengr, from the old Scandinavian personal name preceding the Old English word tun meaning a farmstead.
In Norse mythology Drengr is one of the sons of Karl and Snør in the Rígsþula
Old Norse drengr = 'young man', 'bold man'
Danish dreng = 'boy'
Norwegian dreng = 'farmhand'
Swedish dräng = 'farmhand'
The name of the Hundred of Thedwastre indicates the moot/wapentake was held at a tree on the land of a lord we would nowadays call Edward or Ted, Theodward's tree.
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