Experience the best of Peterborough

Peterborough stands on the River Nene at the western edge of the Fens, in eastern England. Its cathedral, begun in the twelfth century, is one of the great Norman buildings of the country and has a remarkable west front of three tall arches. Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, is buried there, and Mary, Queen of Scots lay in the cathedral after her execution in 1587 until her son moved her body to Westminster Abbey in 1612.

Flag Fen, east of the city, has the remains of a Bronze Age timber causeway and platform built across the wetland. The Nene Valley Railway runs steam trains westward through the parkland of Nene Park, and Longthorpe Tower keeps medieval wall paintings. Burghley House, an Elizabethan mansion, stands near the stone town of Stamford, and Ely and its cathedral are across the Fens to the south-east.

The black soil of the Fens grows potatoes, onions and sugar beet, which end up on local tables beside sausages and roast meats from market towns. The sky is wide, the land is flat, and eastern England is one of the driest parts of the country.