Shadows and light.

Door of the Day. St Mary's Church, Badley, Suffolk. #AdoorableThursday

We all ask for one of these in the House of Lords bar.

St Mary's Church, Bures with a dash of Suffolk pink on the reflection. Suffolk side of the river. #WindowsonWednesday

In a country churchyard. #Essex

Castle Park, Colchester. Essex. #ThicktrunkTuesday

November.

Good morning all. It's going to be wet here in the East today so here's one from the Summer to give you a bright start for your week. #Monday

Shadows and light. Norwich Cathedral Cloisters.

Mersea Island, Essex. #RemembranceSunday

St Mary's Church, Buxhall, Suffolk. #StainedglassSunday

On a busy road with no pavement at Aylsham in Norfolk. Approach with caution! #PostboxSaturday

St Edmunds Church, East Mersea. My favourite piece of local stained glass.

For #FerrousFriday the Hadleigh sheep which commemorates the role of the animals in the development of the town. Hadleigh became wealthy from the wool trade during the medieval period . #Suffolk

I had come to Hadleigh with a good friend who was unfamiliar with the town, primarily to take photos. The weather forecast was out of kilter with reality and there was not much light to work with. But that didn't matter, the character of a place can transcend the weather.

For me it is down by the river that you can reach the ancient roots of Hadleigh. The waterfowl and tangled undergrowth transport you back to a time and place where once Guthrum the Dane had walked, perhaps still regretting the time that he clashed swords with Alfred the Great.

It has been suggested that this bench end shows the giant wolf that according to legend guarded the martyred head of St Edmund and is an image that I first saw as a boy in my grandparents AA Illustrated Tour Book of the British Isles. That book ignited in me a passion for travel.

Inside the cold church an exhibition was in place. It told the stories of the fate of young men from the town who perished in both wars. It made for grim reading. The church bell was being rung while I was there. They would have heard that familiar bell, as children, as young men

St Mary's Church is one of the finest in Suffolk. An original Saxon chapel has been excavated in the churchyard facing the porch. This might date to the time when King Guthrum of the Danes, beaten by King Alfred was baptised and forced to retire to his estates in East Anglia.

The deanery gatehouse was built in 1495. It contains a secret chamber in the southeast turret, and two paintings said to have been by Canaletto who was a guest of Dean Tanner some time between 1749 and 1751.