Shakespeare, Castles and Farms
Today was a day of castles and farms. We went to Warwick, and Stratford upon Avon. We started in Warwick, with Warwick castle, supposedly one of the largest in Britain. It’s been in action since the Saxons, then the Normans made improvements, then the Earl of Warwick built up the whole thing, and people have been tinkering with it the whole time. It’s definitely castle-y, with a giant tower and rampart and the steepest spiral stairs I have ever met. The whole thing is done up as a total destination event, which to us made it less interesting, but it was still a good time. There were groups of kids running around everywhere, and there were a bunch of exhibits about the castle though history.
We climbed all the way up to the tower to get a view of the entire castle and grounds. Heck, if the weather was better, we could have probably seen all the way to the next county over. England is very flat…
The view from the castle tower down into the grounds of the castle
On the wall
Spiral stairs… so many spiral stairs!
A view from the castle wall of Warwick town, and the church
We watched them use this trebuchet to chuck a rock or something into the woods
A peacock! One of about 5 wandering around in the gardens
The conservatory on the grounds. Obviously a later addition, and much more impressive on the outside.
After we’d gone through the castle and the gardens, we went out into the town of Warwick, where we stumbled upon a very cool church. Down in the crypt you could see the original Norman ceiling vaults, the Dean’s chapel had an altercloth used at the coronation of Elizabeth I, and in an anteroom off to the side, there was the tombs Earl of Warwick, nickname: Kingmaker, and his wife. There were effigies on top, beautifully decorated. You could see every tiny detail, down to the hinges on his armor, and the buttons down her dress. There were also tombs and effigies to Lord Robert Dudley (favorite of Queen Elizabeth I) and his wife Lettice Knoylls (who used to be a lady in the court of QEI, until she started hanging out with Dudley, whereupon things got a bit ugly) There was also an effigy to their son, who died as a child. All in all, the church was gorgeous, and it was a fun discovery to find people we’d read about.
Outside the church in Warwick
Dudley and Lettice Knowles
We took the long way back through Warwick to get to the car, and then drove on the short distance to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace and part time home of Shakespeare. There was a pretty little shopping area around the birthplace house that is pedestrians only, so we went wandering around there. We didn’t go into the house, because it was packed full of people, and they wanted like a million dollars to get in. Plus, we don’t really care about where Shakespeare was born, so much. =).
Shakespeare’s birthplace
There are a few properties in Stratford that are associated with Shakespeare and people in his life. One, just outside of Stratford is the farm of Mary Arden. We decided to get out of Stratford proper, and headed for the farm. What a find the farm was. It’s totally done up as a mostly working Tudor farm, complete with period breeds of animals, and the rooms set up to show what life would have been like. It’s a HUGE farm, or at least, there were tons of rooms, by Tudor standards. I think I counted beds for at least 12 people, and then there was an apothecary, a dairy and all sorts of things. The gardens were all going strong, and you can really see how around here, things would just grow like crazy. When you hear about some of the farming stuff, the one thing they never talk about is irrigation… because they don’t need it around here. Everything is very green.
Mary Arden’s farm included a bunch of animals. These are breeds are as close to period breeds as can be, but a lot of them are basically gone, due to new breeds being better for food and so on.
The garden outside the farm
The main bed..
And the upstairs beds! There were way more in the next room, but just pallets on the floor for the help.
Look how tiny that door is behind Kevin! Not a trick, you have to skooch from one room to the other.
We also watched a woman do a falconry demonstration with two owls. The first was a little white owl. Seriously, it was ADORABLE. Owls aren’t normally something I think of as cute, but this one was CUTE. They got a treat when they came to her when they were supposed to, but this one was cheating, and every time she’d put it down, it would fly over, and hope to get treats. She didn’t let it land on her one time, and it landed on the ground and looked up at her with this total look of “Treat? Pwease? I’m cute…” I totally would have given it a treat. Also, it totally fell off its perch once. HILARIOUS!
The second owl was a huge Eagle Owl. He was funny, because she kept trying to make him fly over to her so she could demonstrate that he was totally silent in flight, but he was not having it, and kept walking/ running/ flapping/ waddling over to her. Waddling owls are very funny. You could really tell that the owls liked her a lot, and that she liked them. The farm was definitely a highlight of the day.
This show was very entertaining. And that owl was CUTE!
AWWWW!!!
Big owl! Still cute!
P.S. Not dead. Just too lazy to go up and post last night. =)