Planning a trip to England. I want to travel to Rochester. I also want to travel to Suffolk then up to Lincolnshire and York. I also want to spend time in London. How many days do I need to allow to travel to these counties plus spend time in London?
Thank you.
What do you want to see in each county? Why these? I could easily spend at least a fortnight in Suffolk and a week in Lincoln. Lincolnshire is flat and boring countryside.
London - a week minimum or a month if you have the time.
York itself needs 2-3 days depending on your interests - the Minster, Rail Museum, walk the walls, the Viking stuff, Betty’s tea shop etc. Plus the countryside around here is worth spending 3+ days exploring.
Rochester is a day trip from London. Why Rochester? Other than the cathedral, it’s not the most exciting day trip you could take from London.
I have similar questions.
I have a guess. 8th Air Force?
How many airfields are you planning on going to? The museums too? Do you know about the Cambridge American Cemetery?
My husband's family were from Lincolnshire. In Rochester, yes want to visit the cathedral. Again related to our family history. The Viking history is our interest in visiting York. We have approximately 2 weeks for our travels.
We have been to Britain several times and love it. In 2017 we did a four week drive tour (avoiding London and the larger cities) visiting England and S. Wales. We spent three nights in York and it was one of our favorite cities. I suggest a week in London and two weeks for the rest of your trip.
We visited the Yorkshire Moors, Whitby, York, Durham and Hadrian's Wall on the northern part of our trip. That accounted for about a week of our four week tour.
Check our my detailed review of our trip.
28 days in Britain and Celebrity Eclipse home
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599139
Lincolnshire is quite a varied county, and sufficiently varied depending on where exactly you're going.
Skegness (It's Bracing) on the water is completely different from Cleethorpes.
Grimsby different to Cleethorpes just around the corner.
The cathedral city of Lincoln (don't miss the Steep Hill) is dramatically different from Stamford with its many churches and beautiful buildings (my fav town in the ceremonial county, and its just down the road from me, and has the incredible Burghley House).
The fens in the south and centre are very different to anything in the US.
Market Rasen is an interesting place, and there are Lincolnshire suburbs of Hull.
The home of Isaac Newton (a descendent of his apple tree is near the house (National Trust) is near Grantham. Another great National Trust property just the other side of Grantham is Belton House with its several gardens and often village cricket on the lawn in front of the house. You won't be able to pack folding chairs in your car but I assure you that an afternoon watching the lads is good fun.
And then the World War II airfields and aviation museums.
The Hawks of the Red Arrows are based at an RAF field in Lincolnshire too....
so don't write off Lincolnshire.
If you say where you are heading we may be able to help details.
And yes, it is pretty flat.
Suffolk has everything from the cathedral of St Edmundsbury (don't often find beer festivals in the nave of cathedrals - yes there is one this weekend) (in Bury St Edmunds, Bury also famous for most of the sugar grown and refined in the UK), to Constable Country on the Suffolk Coast, to Newmarket and its horses, to Lavenham with the medieval buildings, to the peace of the Broads.
I'd love to know whereabouts you'll be.
It will be fast moving to see the places you list in 2 weeks...
Thank you everyone for the information. I can tell we need to plan a longer trip. I wish I could say where my husband's family were from - his paternal ancestor arrived in the British Colonies around 1720 and we know he came from Lincolnshire. Based on our last name - a guess would be Owmby by Spital. The Doomsday book has Onby's in Lincolnshire.
My husband knows all his family immigrated from England but we were surprised when his ancestry DNA revealed his paternal side orginated in Denmark. We definitely want to visit York to learn about the Vikings - although his ancestor may not have been a Viking, we believe they were settlers who came from Denmark.
The church in Ownby by Spittal is Norman, although (like most of our churches) it was extensively restored in the C19th. It is possible your family were christened and married here. It might be worth contacting the vicar and asking about access to old church registers?
https://www.explorechurches.org/church/st-peter-st-paul-owmby-spital
The Danes conquered and occupied huge parts of the east of England. They may not have left as many remains as in York, but they have left their place names. Many place names have Danish or Scandinavian origins. If you visit Lincoln (definiterly worth it for the Cathedral and Castle and not far from Owmby) you will find many of the streets have gate in the name, which was Scandinavian for road.
http://www.viking.no/e/england/danelaw/epl-danelaw.htm
The Vikings also had a camp at Torksey (again not far from Lincoln) but there's nothing to be seen apart from a few bumps in the ground...
Many people sailed from places like Boston to the Colonies (think of the Pilgrim Fathers 150 years earlier) so you may want to include Boston in your visit.
One of the problems is that you could easily spend a week in each of Suffolk and Lincolnshire, but time constraints are probably limiting you to 2-3 days in each. York also needs a similar amount of time - I'm assuming here the main attraction is Jorvik? As already mentioned, Rochester can be done as a day trip from London.
Difficult decisions will need to be made as you can't do everything. Prioritise your main objectives.
Thank you to all who responded to my post. The information was extremely helpful.
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I visited Rochester on the way to Canterbury and the Cliffs of Dover. It has a ruined castle, cathedral and a museum with a lot of Dickens stuff going on. A few hours will do. It was a fine stop and worked well in my trip as it was right off the train I was taking from Bath-Canterbury-Dover, but it was hardly a highlight.
Thank you for the feedback. I have ancestors from Rochester - why I am interested in visiting the town.
