A fond farewell dinner

The gardens at Great Fosters

Hard to believe that it's already time to start saying our goodbyes, but with school letting out in 10 days, folks will leave the following day for their summer break, so that left this weekend and next for our get togethers. Last night we had a wonderful farewell dinner for the families in our group who are permanently leaving the UK this summer. We picked the historic Great Fosters restaurant to celebrate our time here. It's a really impressive and beautiful place.
It was a great evening with great friends and great food. We will miss them dearly. They've been our family while we've been living our lives on this little island. "Good people" as we say!

Here we are as we took our tea in the great hall (built in the 1500s). Out of the shot is a beautiful fireplace that had a fire burning. (still chilly here!)
As you can see, DA wasn't able to be with us. He's traveling at the moment. We really missed him.

GREAT FOSTERS
History says that it was once the hunting lodge of Henry VIII. There is even an Anne Boleyn room. Henry's daughter, Queen Elizabeth I also stayed at Great Fosters.

(from the website www.greatfosters.co.uk)
At the far end of a wide gravel driveway, Great Fosters stretches out in all its splendour – an outstanding 16th century red-brick house dominating what is believed to be an Anglo-Saxon site, backing onto formal gardens and surrounded on three sides by a moat.

Over the centuries, Great Fosters has been extended, embellished and renovated, yet with each addition the history and charm of the property have been faithfully preserved. Wander through the house and at every turn intricate craftsmanship, celebrated artistry and acclaimed architecture bear testament to Great Fosters’ distinguished past.

The centre of the house is believed to date back to around 1550, when it was most likely built as a symmetrical U-shaped Elizabethan homestead. The slightly larger brickwork in the porch and at the sides of the house suggests a later extension, around 1600.

Elizabethan craftsmen excelled in designing varied styles of tall chimneys, and whilst a bomb blast during the war necessitated all Great Fosters’ chimney pinnacles to be removed, they have been so accurately replicated that they won Great Fosters an award in the 1970s.

Another dominant feature of the house is the windows, all of which are stone mullions and transoms with leaded lights. The History Within Entering Great Fosters through its central porch you walk through a doorway, above which the arms and initials of Queen Elizabeth I date to 1598. From here, a stout inner door gives way to the main hall and the wealth of treasures within.
Here is the "stout" doorway. The tiny door within the large door. This is the main entrance and they had everyone enter through the tiny door. We got a big kick out of it.