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Tuesday 8 September 2020

In Kersey



The little village of Kersey lies tucked in a fold of the Suffolk countryside, hidden away from the bustling world of the twenty-first century. Or so you might think.....


....except that almost everyone knows it's there and people have been visiting this out-of-the-way place for many years...many, many years in fact.


It has the kind of ancient beauty that's hard to ignore. Although it's basically one narrow street that's less than half a mile (0.8 Km) in length, there are 40 listed buildings along its length (buildings that are protected as being of great historical or cultural interest).

In summer (at least in a normal summer) this place can be heaving with tourists and even if you never visit you'll probably encounter photographs of it on calendars or catch sight of it in an episode of "Lovejoy"!


Even in the early days of motoring it was a significant enough destination to persuade the AA to erect one of its signs to help its members on their way.


This little place had its own market as far back as the thirteenth century and, like many of the villages in this area, probably owes much of its historical importance to the manufacture and trade in wool and textiles. There was even a kind of coarse woollen cloth called "kersey". However the village's website says that historical evidence for all this is hard to find.


I also learned from various sources that there was also another matter putting Kersey on the map in Medieval times.


On the hill at the south end of The Street stands the village church which, through its tall tower and imposing location, gives the feeling of being larger than it actually is. Back in the fourteenth century this became a place of pilgrimage on account of "the many miracles" that occurred there.


The shrine in the church and the idea of pilgrimage did not survive the political and religious upheavals of the seventeenth century, but in 2020 the Shrine was "re-hallowed", though at present, like many other institutions, it's operating via the internet.


I didn't enter the church to see the Shrine so I'll have to rely on the power of the lucky black cat that crossed my path.


Just a few more pictures before we set out on a walk in the surrounding countryside....


The door of a fine old house, right next to the ford. I noticed that it was For Sale if anyone's interested.





That last shot was taken at the start of the walk, using a telephoto lens and looking back over the village through a hole in the hedge. The rest of the walk will have to wait for the next post.


Take care


24 comments:

  1. Walking back through time. Lovely. Thank you for taking me along.

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  2. Amazing! They could use your post on their website to attract visitors! You could be a tour guide! Thanks for sharing this lovely town.

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  3. I want to visit Kersey, what a way to travel back in time. I would think more shows in addition to Lovejoy would film there, I don't see any telephone or electrical poles, so it would work for filming.

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  4. For en vakker flott by!!Nydeligt!Fint at du deler!

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  5. What a beautiful village. I love the buildings and the street winding past them all. It looks old and very comforting. Thank you for bringing me along on this walk. I've really enjoyed it. Hugs, Edna B.

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  6. Such a lovely place. I'm off to look up its location on a map!

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  7. Nice tour of the beautiful village. I enjoyed it.

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  8. Oooh. And ahh. And thank you.
    It looks lovely - and I am sucker for lucky black cats too.
    The duck wind vane took my fancy as well. I don't think I have ever seen one before.

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  9. A beautiful place. That cat is a darling.

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  10. What a lovely walk. Love that kitty cat.

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  11. Hello John, I'm new around here, seduced like many before me by your gorgeous pics of places not visited by me. I'd watched "Campion" on DVD last week and thought hullo! this looks familiar, and have subsequently discovered Kersey was indeed one if its locations, too!

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  12. Perfect spot to take first and last shot John, the rooftops of Kersey are incroyably photogenic 💜 You can see that this historic town is well loved and looked after, oh my so many delicious photo ops. Lovejoy was one of my favourite programs, never miss it if I see there are re-runs 💜

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  13. I sure enjoyed the visit...love the old buildings. This is the type of place we like to visit.

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  14. This is such a lovely little town, I see why it's so popular. It's someplace I'd love to visit too. Thanks for the tour.

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  15. What a delightful village. Lots of nostalgia here.

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  16. Always so pleasant to visit an English village, - there is no place in Canada like it - at least in the west. But then, we are very young.......

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  17. Those various traditionally shades of 'Suffolk Pink' blend so harmoniously together - the Ford crossing the street, seemingly no people around, it is picture perfect, and beautifully captured by you.

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  18. Forget the few parked cars and it’s a step back in time. A photogenic and charming village.

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  19. These kinds of villages simply do not exist in North America and fill us all with more than a hint of envy.

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  20. Hi John - what an amazing little village - not sure I'd like to live there ... but wonderful to see - thank you. Picturesque to put it mildly ... and of course full of history. Love the cat! Take care - Hilary

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  21. This is such a delightful place! Thank you for the tour.. It was quite enjoyable.

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  22. What a gorgeous village. The houses are so quaint.

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  23. Beautiful.Trying to catch up with you, and it seems you have been out and about to many places lately. This village is one of the prettiest you've written about, I think.

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