Burwell is a typically English village with its pretty, colourful cottages and bells ringing out from its medieval church. But like many villages, Burwell's history goes a long way back and just outside the village one of the most spectacular man-made features of East Anglia strides out across the chalk hills.
 | | Protecting the Devil's Dyke! |
The Devil's Dyke is thought to have been made by Saxons and it is hard to imagine how people dug out this enormous ditch and piled the soil high to make a rampart without our modern earth-moving machinery. Just how many buckets did they need to fill? These days the Dyke is a peaceful place to take a walk and enjoy the wildlife and plants which only grow on chalky soil, but as you stroll on a summer's day perhaps you can imagine the impact this giant of a boundary had on the people living either side of it - maybe distant ancestors of some of the people still living in Burwell and Swaffham Prior today. Just a short hop from Burwell is the market town of Newmarket, now known around the world as the centre of horse-racing, with 2500 horses and more than 60 studs.
 | | A race-horse |
The town is steeped in history and Charles I was staying here when Parliament demanded he give up control of the country's armed forces. After the restoration, Charles II used to play the 'jolly blade' and parade up the High Street with the commoners - so our Tourist in Town might have been walking in his footsteps when they called at the National Horseracing Museum!
For more information about the National Horseracing Museum vist their website:
National Horseracing Museum >
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