Monthly Archives: April 2022

More Warwickshire Wanderings

by thehistoryinterpreter

Another day out in Warwickshire. First stop was Baddesley Clinton, just a few miles from our caravan site. This is a fifteenth century, moated manor house, built on the site of a Saxon settlement. We began with a walk round the grounds and were treated with the view of a dozen newly hatched ducklings, hiding in the grass by the side of the lake. Baddesley was the home of the Catholic Ferrers family for twelve generations. In the late sixteenth century it was let to the Vaux sisters and became a centre for secret Jesuit meetings. It boasts a priests’ hole where nine Jesuits managed to escape detection. Said priests’ hole basically doubles as the toilet but anything to avoid being caught, I guess. The house is a joy for fans of heraldry with almost every room boasting coats of arms. We also saw a tapestry in the process of being cleaned and a particularly ornate, nineteenth century chapel.  As an added attraction, the house is the home to the National Trust’s largest collection of children’s books. In a rather more gruesome vein, in the 1480s, Baddesley was the scene of a murder, when Nicholas Brome came home to find the local priest ‘chocking his wife under her chin’ and consequently ran him through. After parting with a considerable amount of money and agreeing to repair two local churches, Nicholas was granted pardons from the king and the pope.

Next was the consumption of chocolate cake. I am not a fan of the regulation requiring the number of calories to be displayed. I am sure it is not a deterrent to those who need to be careful about calorie intake. It only means that we end up overweight and burdened with guilt, rather than just overweight.

In order to walk off just a few of the whopping 534 calories in what was actually quite a modest-sized slice of cake, we went on to Kenilworth Castle. We arrived just in time for ‘Knight School’, sadly we were observers only, being of rather more mature years than the target age for participants. Valuable lessons were nonetheless learned. The first rule of knight school is, ‘don’t get dead’. Kenilworth was established by royal chamberlain Geoffrey de Clinton in the 1120s. He also founded the nearby Augustinian priory of St Mary the Virgin. In 1447, the pope granted the priory abbey status. Kenilworth became a royal residence and was added to by King John, John of Gaunt and Henry V. Much of the twelfth century part is built of sandstone, which is eroding in interesting patterns. Kenilworth is famous for the siege of 1266, when Simon de Montfort held the castle against Henry III for 172 days, the longest Medieval siege. Elizabeth I granted Kenilworth to her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who entertained the queen at the castle, creating a pleasure garden in honour of her visit. Dudley was responsible for additional building on the site. He accomplished this largely by using pillaged stone from the nearby abbey, that had been surrendered to Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries. The abbey’s remains were excavated in 1922 but are now protected by soil.

A royalist stronghold during the Civil War, Kenilworth was acquired by Parliamentarian Colonel Joseph Hawkesworth after the war. Retaining the gatehouse as a private residence, Hawkesworth began dismantling much of the castle and selling off the building materials. Kenilworth was saved by Sir John Siddeley, of Armstrong-Siddeley motors fame, who bought it for the nation, giving it to the forerunner of English Heritage in 1937, as well as funding repairs.

Bardic Adventures

by thehistoryinterpreter

Whilst visiting Warwickshire for a lovely family wedding, we decided that we’d look around a little, before heading home. Having never been, we picked yesterday to visit Stratford on Avon and only afterwards realised that we had timed our visit to coincide with Shakespeare’s birthday. We didn’t let the small fact that we hadn’t bought him a card deter us and off we set. We had a timed entry slot at Shakespeare’s birthplace and didn’t want to miss it. As we arrived, it was clear that something was going on as roads were closed and crowds lined the streets. It seemed that Shakespeare’s birthday was to be accompanied by a parade. We listened to a band for a bit and watched some men appear with a bust of Shakespeare, which they proceeded to screw to a plinth (health and safety rules). The band stopped and no one seemed sure what was going to happen next. We needed to be on time for our birthplace visit but it seemed a shame not to see whatever was due to happen too. My intrepid companion approached a man with a clip-board – always a good strategy when in doubt. Said clipboard-toting gentleman suggested that we went for our visit straight away, as then we would be back in time for the planned procession. We complied.

Being seventeenth century types, the birthplace was very interesting, with lovely gardens. Without rushing, we managed to return to the ever-thickening crowds in time to watch the parade of costumed characters, school children, local dignitaries and morris dancers go past and walk to the church where Shakespeare is buried. Only the great and good, most of whom were clutching posies of yellow and purple flowers to lay, were allowed in the church, so that was us out. Instead, we watched the morris dancers and looked at several old buildings clad in wisteria, which is in full flower here; mine at home has barely begun to shoot. Next, a visit to The New Place, Shakespeare’s home in later life. Again, there were lovely gardens, as well as the exhibition itself. There were some Shakespearean themed sculptures in the gardens as well.

A short drive and we were at Anne Hathaway’s cottage, dating from the fifteenth century. More beautiful gardens, an orchard and more sculptures. Here it was the cowslips that were at their best. I invested in a few herbs to take home.

Definitely a recommended visit, even without the bonus of the birthday celebrations. A joint ticket to all three properties is a considerable saving and you don’t have to visit all three on the same day.

Sunday Sunrise and other Adventures

by thehistoryinterpreter

Every Easter Sunday in non-COVID times, there is a church service on the clifftop not too far from me. Whatever your religious belief, or lack of the same, this is always an awe-inspiring experience. We’ve been on several occasions in previous years and decided we’d go again this year. Getting up in time to travel fifteen miles and then walk up to the top of the downs before sunrise is not so much of a challenge when Easter is earlier in the year and therefore sunrise later in the day. This year we needed to be there for 5.45am, which meant leaving home almost an hour before that. It seems I am still able to get up, washed, dressed and breakfasted in quarter of an hour, so the alarm was set for 4.30am. I never use an alarm and had we been leaving at 5.15am I wouldn’t have done so this time but being awake for 4.30am naturally was a step too far, even for me. The fisherman of my acquaintance was already at my house in preparation, so agreed to set an alarm on his phone – not something we normally do. This worked well and I was awake at the first bleep. What we hadn’t factored in was that working out how to set the alarm was only part of the process. We also needed to know how to turn it off. This finally accomplished, we could get ready and be on our way.

As it was still pre-sunrise and we were walking across a headland, miles from the nearest light source bar the moon, we needed a torch. I found one that combines a torch with a panic alarm; I think I acquired it because it was free with something. Let’s just say that it turns out that there is a very fine movement of a dial between turning the torch off and setting the panic alarm going. I am not prepared to say how I know this. Those organising the event had permission to light a small fire but even so, it wasn’t exactly warm. We surprised some wild campers who had chosen to pitch their tent right next to where the service was to be held. Not sure they were expecting to be woken up at 5,30am. For the benefit of those of you overseas, I should point out that wild camping is not allowed in England, so they were somewhat disconcerted to see a couple of dozen people congregating nearby, to say nothing of the sparks from the fire floating towards the tent.

The sunrise was spectacular as always.

In other news, I have a new phone. I don’t know why I am so late to the mobile phone use party, when I spend my life on a computer but I’ve never been a fan. With this new-to-me phone, I may almost be being converted into a phone user. My grandchildren were scathing about the old phone’s Pokémon Go-ing ability and this was an unused upgrade phone that the fisherman of my acquaintance couldn’t get on with, so was happy to pass to me. It is an iphone (not that that means much to me) that outdoes the AR Pokémon features that the grandchildren have (I keep quiet about that). I’ve even managed to use it for things like replying to emails. I’ve still not actually made or received a phone call and please don’t ask me what my number is, I’d have to look it up but that’s for another day.

As promised, here is the booking link for the family history Youth Conference. There are ten speakers, all under the age of thirty, from five countries and everyone, of all ages, is encouraged to come along. This is not just a box-ticking, showing your support, exercise. There are some interesting new perspectives on family history being shared by some extremely knowledgeable speakers. It is going to be a great day.

The Experimental Archaeology Adventure Part 9: from a thing to things

by thehistoryinterpreter

I am now, sadly, halfway through this course. It really does come highly recommended if you are interested in the objects of the past. It is wonderful that it has been made available as an option for distance learning. You have until 3 June to apply for a place on next year’s course. Ideal if you are a traditional craftsperson, historical interpreter or family historian. Although ‘archaeology’ conjures up visions of ancient artefacts and there is, understandably, a good dollop of input about fascinating older ‘stuff’ the flexibility of the course has meant that I can concentrate on a much more recent era. I was sad to miss the opportunity to be in-person at the amazing Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMAC) but it wasn’t to be for me – maybe another time.

The assignment about Jessie’s Locket has been and gone. I created a wonderful powerpoint plus soundtrack before realising that the time limit was ten minutes. I decided that I might not get away with sixteen minutes, so editing was needed. I was in a better position than some of my colleagues whose efforts topped forty minutes but still an issue. I reluctantly axed some of the material and then gabbled away in an unprofessionally speedy fashion to cram what was left into ten minutes and fourteen seconds. I now await the results with trepidation.

Attention has turned to a lengthier assignment, focussing on bringing an archaeological perspective to the examination of a collection of objects. Again, it was difficult to choose but I have decided on the collection of family photographs that pre-date my birth. These photographs are currently housed in a single album. Part one of the assignment is to describe the collection, so I have begun by categorising the images, which are almost all of people, rather than places or events. Having counted them, I was surprised to find that there are 554! They will take a while to catalogue and yes, I do know that I have many still to scan but that is not part of the assignment. The next and most interesting, stage is to write about their significance, their meaning and to think about how I react to these images. I have a horrible feeling that this may become uncharacteristically sentimental if I am not careful. Finally, I have to consider the ongoing future of the collection and look at comparative studies. That’s going to be the difficult bit. If anyone can point me in the direction of papers about the curation and conservation of specific photographic collections, I’d be grateful. So far, I’ve found a book for £198.02 that I might have to give a miss.

I have free rein regarding how I present this assignment and I have decided that one can have too much of chatting to your computer, so this will be an extended, illustrated essay, with plans to put the results on this, or possibly another, website. Watch this (or another) space.

I sometimes think that I have learned as much about social media on this course as I have about Experimental Archaeology. I have scaled the learning curves that are WhatsApp, Discord and now it seems I have found myself on ‘Insta’ (see I am learning the lingo). I did accidentally follow Adele by mistake but I think I am getting the hang. Not yet decided how I might use it but if you want to follow me feel free JanetFewHistory.

Old photograph of a mother and child with a doll's pram
A favourite from my collection 1926