Grimes Graves, Oxburgh Hall, Weeting Castle

After our morning in Newmarket, we set out for Thetford Forest in search of Grimes Graves. This is the site of 5000 year old neolithic flint mines. The earth is riddled with the craters that are the remains of what was over 400 mines. It is quite amazing to see 7 acre site with all the dips. To date, they have excavated 28 mines and there is one that we are able to explore. You basically strap on a hard helmet and climb almost 30 feet down this ladder into this mine. To give a framework, this is approximately the time when Stonehenge was created and it is thought that flint tools (like the ones from this mine) were used for this type of activity. What is also interesting is that the parks person took a fancy to us and started telling us other stories about the area. He shared that that the farm land in this area was pretty poor and it was a group from around this area that set off in a ship to escape religious persecution. While I have just spent the last hour doing the google and wiki dance, I can get a firm confirmation. For the sake of the weekend, I am going to go with the story that some of the Mayflower passengers were from this area.

We then headed off to a pub for a quick lunch. Most everyone else was having a lazy afternoon drinking some beer and having a laugh. In classic American style, we chowed down on our sandwiches and headed off to our next site. Oxburgh Hall is a 500 year old Victorian house where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held for a period of time. What is most interesting is that the house is still owned by the descendants of the original builders and they still live in the house.

The favorite spot in the house was the Priests Hole. We had to climb through a brick trapdoor and slide through a chute. This is where the family hid the catholic priest in the event of a raid. The tapestries were amazing and this home even had a moat.

The last major find for the day was Weeting Castle. This was from the 12th century and it was thought to be abandon in 1390. It was actually a manor house and it sits off the road in the middle of this big field behind a church. You can see the outline of the moat and kids loved jumping into it. We were pretty done by this time and the light was fading fast. We did a quick run past Lakenheath Air force base (it reminded us of our visit to Germany to see the Crawfords) and then we headed back to the Old Pump House.