The day being wet, we took a trip to Ely for a visit to Oliver Cromwell's house. He grew up around here in Huntingdon, but was MP for Cambridge before becoming the leader of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War. After ridding us of the monarchy, he became Lord Protector of the United Kingdom. He was quite popular by all accounts.
But times change. The Stuart monarchy returned and Cromwell's body was disinterred from Westminster Abbey. His head was displayed on a pole for some time and then stolen, but it toured the country as a fairground curio until quite recently. Now it is buried at his college in Cambridge.
His house in Ely is a pleasant place to visit, close to the parish church and the cathedral. My son Dan, and my grandson Jake (pictured), enjoyed the dressing up room, and the haunted bedroom with Oliver on his deathbed.
Like John Clare's house, which we visited earlier, they use audio hand-sets for the tour. I'm not thrilled about these, but the dressing up room was a great improvement on the "look; don't touch" approach.
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