By Nigel Heath
At one end of the iconic Golden Lion Hotel, a bustling coaching inn since the 18th century and overlooking the picturesque main square in the old market town of St Ives in Cambridgeshire there is a long cool, narrow and shady lane.
We had come upon it after checking into the hotel and had emerged for an exploratory stroll. The lane looked enticing and its shade was welcoming because this was a late July afternoon in the middle of a relentless heatwave and my wife Jenny and I had just driven all the way from our hillside cottage home close to the Wye Valley in South Wales.
Midway along the lane we came across a small bar open to the street where several customers were enjoying a quiet pint sheltering out of the merciless sunshine and we thought we might join them on our return.
But nothing could have prepared us for the tranquil and peaceful scene which suddenly opened up a few steps further on as we emerged back out into the sunshine.
We were now peering out over a wide and tranquil mooring side section of The Great Ouse River dominated by a 15th century stone bridge and only one of four in the country with a chapel in the middle.
In front of us was a kiosk advertising river trips and now truly in holiday mode we booked our passage for 4pm the following afternoon.
Strolling along the almost deserted quay towards the bridge and garlanded with a floral display was the outside seating for Amore an Italian restaurant and tempted by the menu we stepped inside and booked dinner for the following evening.
Beyond the bridge we came upon a bar with seats looking out over the river and could not resist stopping for pre- dinner drinks before strolling back to the Golden Lion for supper and a comfortable night.
It only took us fifteen minutes the following morning to drive out to The Manor in the delightful village of Hemingford Grey.
Built back in circa 1130 this former fortified Norman manor house encircled by a long filled in moat and set in delightfully large and rambling gardens complete with topiary and herbaceous borders is the longest continually inhabited house in Britain going back almost nine hundred years.
We were shown around by owner Diana Boston now aged eighty-six who has been doing conducted tours for over thirty years.
A special highlight was a visit to the Music Room where her mother- in- law the famous quilter and children’s novelist Lucy Boston staged gramophone recitals for servicemen from a nearby RAF base during WWII.
Spellbound we watched as Diana opened the ancient gramophone with its giant speaker horn and put on the haunting hymn Abide with Me which would have been heard along with many other records of the day by those young flyers taking to the skies in defence of their country.
Once back outside in the sunshine we slipped out through a garden gate and onto the riverside path beside The Great Ouse and back into Hemingford Grey where we enjoyed a delightful alfresco lunch at The Cock Inn.
Then back in St Ives we returned to The Golden Lion for a rest before again walking back to the town quay for our boat trip along the Great Ouse which at circa 140 miles is the fifth longest river in the UK.It rises in Northamptonshire and meanders its way east through Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Cambridgeshire to drain through the fens and out into the North Sea.
The electric boat trips are run by Francis and Sarah Mizuro who opted to resign from their professional jobs five years ago and begin a completely new and more relaxed life on the river and have never looked back.
It was a delightful and relaxing hour-long trip along a quiet waterway out to the weir in front of the Norman Manor house we had visited earlier, and back again.
Enroute we soon passed the Holt Island nature reserve where the growing and harvesting of reeds for basket weaving was once a major source of employment around one hundred years ago. While it is now managed by a local community group, the scout movement have a camp there.
Later sitting outside Amore and waiting for what turned out to be one of the best Italian meals we had ever had we chinked glasses of fizz and toasted the end of a perfect day.
