Lincolnshire and East Anglia

[Dave Mann]

As neither of us has ventured into the eastern counties I thought we should remedy that so my question is can anybody recommend places to stay to visit the areas. One for Lincolnshire and another for East Anglia.

[Old Dave]

Hello Dave - well for Lincolnshire it depends on what you want and your budget. For old guys like me a visit to The Petwood Hotel would come recommended, though that bit more expensive.
A drink in the hotel and a walk round is good even if you don't stay there. Many drawings and paintings in the corridors on the ground floor.

https://www.petwood.co.uk/

The Petwood hotel was the Officers' Mess of 617 Squadron "The Dambusters" and their bar is still very much as it was. Their memorial is in the centre of Woodhall Spa a few hundred yards walk from the hotel. This page on the hotel website has links to other WW2 aviation sites.

https://www.petwood.co.uk/explore/aviation-history

I can recommend all of them, especially East Kirkby where you can stand fairly close to their Lancaster with 4 Merlins running. It doesn't fly but it does taxi. The Bomber Command Memorial at Lincoln is a must if you are in the area.

Hotels near Lincoln -  I would recommend The Woodcocks which is a Marston's pub with a fairly new "Travel Lodge" type block at the side  or The Pyewipe. Both of these receive good ratings on Booking.com. at sensible cost. I used to live a couple of miles from these two.

If you visit East Kirkby and RAF Conningsby (from memory Kirkby run engines at a weekend and Conningsby are closed then - you would have to check) a visit to the National Trust at Tattershall Castle is well worth your time especially as you can watch Typhoons flying around RAF Conningsby (3 miles away) from the castle roof. The castle is 15th century red brick!!!

Hope this helps Dave

Regards

Dave Richardson

[Nick Salmon]

I can thoroughly recommend a guided tour of RAF Coningsby. Fascinating things on view and the ex-service personnel really know their stuff.

[Old Dave]

I can definitely second that Nick

[Dave Mann]

thanks that's a good start.

[Hugh Barnes]

If Cambridge is on your radar, recommendations are too many to list!

[Bruce Nicholls]

I agree with all the above visits.

Just Jane, the Austin built Lancaster at East Kirkby is being restored to flight https://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/experien...-taxi-ride

Caister Castle Motor museum has a large and growing collection of vehicles and is worth a visit. (May to Sept) https://www.caistercastle.co.uk/

Various assorted wind mills and wind pumps are open for visits

Lavenham has lots of medieval buildings. https://www.lovelavenham.co.uk/

Bury St Edmunds is interesting with the remains of its huge abbey, Green King brewery, Regency theatre etc.

I am sure others will have more suggestions.

[Howard Wright]

Plus one for Caister Castle.

If I remember rightly they have a cutaway seven chassis showing the workings!

Cheers

Howard

[Old Dave]

Further to Nick Salmon's comments re RAF Conningsby. It is good to get the "tour" of The Battle of Brittain Memorial Flight and see close up the airframes they are working on. I find it really pleasing that young men and women are doing apprenticeships and training on these old Spitfires and Huricanes etc. Anyone with an engineering background would get more out of a visit than I did. My Father did an RAF apprenticeship (Airframes) in the 1930's, but sadly I never did get to take him to Conningsby. He would have loved it.

[Nick Salmon]

I wish there was an uptick facility for comments