OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sunday 1st March - the beginning of the English Spring. Heather and I visited Anglesey Abbey with our Granddaughters Jemimah and Annabelle. The gardens are very nice but I imagine they would be spectacular in a few weeks after the spring flowering plants are in full bloom. 

Anglesey Abbey is a National Trust property located in the village of Lode, 5¹⁄₂ miles northeast of Cambridge, The property includes a country house, built on the remains of a priory, 98 acres of gardens and landscaped grounds, and a working mill. 

The Priory, named Anglesey, was founded by Augustinian Monks in 1236. The priory was closed in 1536 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries which was a set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories and convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland. 

A Jacobean style house was built on the site of the monastic ruins in 1609 by John Fowkes. The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated.

The house has had various owners from 1609 until 1966. The most recent owner, Lord Fairhaven (Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton) bought Anglesey Abbey in 1926 with his brother, Henry Broughton. When Henry married in 1932, Lord Fairhaven became the sole owner after he bought Henry’s share in the Abbey. 

Lord Fairhaven continued to develop Anglesey Abbey by adding several extensions. The house and the grounds came under the care of the National Trust upon the death of Lord Fairhaven in 1966.