Visit Ely Cathedral, begun in 1083, and see the Octagon and its timber lantern, built after the central tower fell in 1322

Tour Oliver Cromwell's House in Ely, where he lived from 1636 to 1647

Walk Ely's riverside along the Great Ouse

Ely Cathedral, begun in 1083, is the Ship of the Fens, and its Octagon, built after the Norman central tower collapsed in 1322 and topped by a timber lantern, lights the crossing. Oliver Cromwell lived in the town from 1636 to 1647, and his house is open; the Great Ouse runs along the town's riverside.

Ely: The Octagon and Cromwell's House

Walk the boardwalk out over the undrained fen

Look for the Konik ponies and Highland cattle grazing the reserve

See the wooden windpump, built in 1908 to drain peat workings and now run in reverse to keep the reedbeds wet

Watch hen harriers or marsh harriers from the hides

Wicken Fen is one of Britain's oldest nature reserves and the first piece of land the National Trust took on for nature, starting in 1899 — a surviving fragment of undrained fen in a landscape that was otherwise pumped dry centuries ago. Konik ponies and Highland cattle graze it now, and the boardwalk runs out over sedge and open water.

Wicken Fen: The National Trust's First Reserve

Watch whooper and Bewick's swans on the floodlit lagoon at WWT Welney Wetland Centre in winter

Come for a floodlit swan feed on a winter Saturday evening

Every winter thousands of whooper swans from Iceland and a few hundred Bewick's swans fly in to the Ouse Washes at WWT Welney. From November to March they are fed in front of the hides, and on Saturday evenings from mid-November to February the lagoon is floodlit for an evening swan feed.

WWT Welney: Wild Swans Under the Floodlights

Take a punting tour on the River Cam along the Backs, passing Queens' College's Mathematical Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs of St John's College

Visit King's College Chapel, begun in 1446 by Henry VI and completed in 1515, with its fan vault and Rubens's Adoration of the Magi

Explore the Fitzwilliam Museum, founded in 1816 on Viscount Fitzwilliam's bequest

See the Corpus Clock on the corner of Corpus Christi College, where the Chronophage eats the seconds on its gold face

Henry VI began King's College Chapel in 1446 and it was finished in 1515, with its fan vault and Rubens's Adoration of the Magi. Punts go along the Backs past Queens' College's Mathematical Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs at St John's, the Fitzwilliam Museum was founded in 1816 on Viscount Fitzwilliam's bequest, and on the corner of Corpus Christi the Chronophage, a mechanical grasshopper, eats time on the gold face of the Corpus Clock.

Cambridge: King's College Chapel and the Backs

Go inside the reconstructed timber halls and sunken huts

See the finds from the original excavation in the museum

Walk the Breckland heath and the Lark in the country park

A real Anglo-Saxon settlement stood at West Stow from the 5th to the 7th century, and it was excavated and then rebuilt on the same ground: timber halls and sunken huts put up as an experiment, using only the tools and techniques the Anglo-Saxons had, to learn how they were built. The country park around it runs along the Lark through Breckland heath.

West Stow: The Anglo-Saxon Village Rebuilt on Its Own Site

Visit the Cromwell Museum in his old grammar school

Walk the riverside and the medieval bridge over the Ouse

Watch for wildfowl from the hides at Grafham's nature reserve

Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon in 1599 and sat for the town in Parliament from 1628; the Cromwell Museum occupies part of the medieval infirmary hall that became the grammar school he and Samuel Pepys attended. About five miles south-west, Grafham Water covers about 630 hectares with a traffic-free circuit round it for bikes and a nature reserve at the western end.

Huntingdon and Grafham Water: Cromwell's Town and a Reservoir Ride

Mountain bike the trails at High Lodge in Thetford Forest, the largest lowland pine forest in Britain

Climb the treetops on the Go Ape course at High Lodge

Climb 9 metres down a shaft at Grime's Graves, the Neolithic flint mines dug from about 2600 BC, when the site is open

Find the statue of Captain Mainwaring in Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed

Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in Britain, with mountain-bike trails and a Go Ape course at High Lodge. At Grime's Graves, Neolithic miners dug for flint from about 2600 BC, and you can climb 9 metres down a shaft when the site is open. In Thetford, where most of Dad's Army's outdoor scenes were filmed, Captain Mainwaring has his own statue.

Thetford Forest and Grime's Graves

Visit Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon burial ground where Basil Brown uncovered the ship burial in 1939

Walk out to the burial mounds above the River Deben

See the reconstruction of the burial chamber and the replica finds in the exhibition hall

Walk the estuary path along the Deben below the mounds

Under a mound above the Deben, Basil Brown found the print of a 27m ship in the sand in 1939, with a burial chamber most likely made for an East Anglian king, probably Rædwald — helmet, shoulder clasps, gold buckle, silver from Byzantium — one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in England. The ship itself had rotted away, leaving only its shape and its rivets.

Sutton Hoo: The Ship Burial Under the Mounds

Walk out along Southend Pier, 2.14km long and the longest pleasure pier in the world

Ride the pier railway, the first pier railway in the country, out to the pier head

Watch waders on the estuary mud at low tide

Southend Pier runs 2.14km (1.33 miles) out into the Thames estuary, the longest pleasure pier in the world, with its own railway along it because of the distance. The town grew as the Londoners' seaside, and at low tide waders feed on the estuary mud.