Famed for its mediaeval wool churches and for the virtuosic qualities of its Romanesque architecture, East Anglia boasts the greatest concentration of mediaeval buildings to survive in any region of England. It is also an area whose towns and villages have grown little since 1500, and whose mediaeval infrastructure remains relatively clear. This is perhaps most apparent in Bury St Edmunds, whose street plan is still that of the new town laid out, along with the abbey, in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest. Thus Bury is an irresistible and ideal base for the tour.

The major buildings to be visited are, of course, East Anglia’s two mediaeval cathedrals at Ely and Norwich. Both retain a substantial Romanesque core, and were magnificently refurbished between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Bury St Edmunds is also within easy reach of some of the finest castles and parish churches in England, and the majority of buildings visited fall into these latter categories – the great twelfth-century castles at Castle Rising, Castle Hedingham and Framlingham, and the incomparable late mediaeval churches of Lavenham, Long Melford and Gipping.