Ickworth Estate

 We are finishing up our time here in the UK.  Yesterday we visited Ickworth Estate which is only about 7 minutes from Lindsey’s house in Bury St Edmunds.  The 4th Earl of Bristol, who was also a Bishop, built this estate not only for his family to live in but to store his extensive art collection.  The rotunda housed his collections and was used for entertaining while family lived in the wings.  It is beautiful and huge.

This is the most amazing silver collection I have ever seen.

Beautiful old church at the entrance to the estate.

A Privy Pouch used to carry important documents.  The Queen still uses one.

Air Fields and Airplanes

 My husband is an aviation enthusiast and also loves history.  This past weekend was one for the books for him.  We visited four WWII Air Fields where US forces were based during the war.  Thorpe Abbots, Tibenham, Old Buckenham and Horham were all on our list.  Thorpe Abbots was home to the 100th Bomb Group - our daughter is a member of the 100th Air Refueling Wing here which is a continuation of this Group so it’s her legacy squadron.  Our daughter Lindsey and her boyfriend James both fly the KC135 at Mildenhall and were able to go with us today.  We met some amazing folks who were so nice and accommodating to us, even treating us to lunch.  Tibenham and Old Buckenham were Jimmy Stewart’s bases during WWII.  Lots of history in these four places.

The above photos are Thorpe Abbots.  At Tibenham there is only a memorial.

At Old Buckenham a wonderful gentleman, James Clarey, showed us around, treated us to lunch at Jimmy’s Cafe, and gave Jeff some fantastic photos of Jimmy Stewart from his time there.

Jimmy’s Famous Cheeseburger 

James and Lindsey both completed pilot training at Columbus AFB and one of the squadrons emblems was Alleycats, seen here on a nose panel.

This is from the Air Guard base in Meridian, MS where Jeff served.

Our last stop was Horham where we met an amazing 84 year old gentleman who was a youngster of 7 when the planes and pilots all showed up here.  He has great memories and wonderful stories of those days.

On Sunday we had an amazing day at the Duxford Air Museum Air Show.  Not only did we see Tiger Moths, Spitfires, B17, P47, P51 and others, but the highlight was seeing the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Forces flight demonstration team, who were amazing!