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Anne Hathaway's Cottage
Anne Hathaway's Cottage, in Statford-Upon-Avon.Saturday 7th June
Arising fairly early we were greeted by warm sunshine. We began by heading away from Warwick back to Stratford-Upon-Avon again to see Anne Hathaway's Cottage.
William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1592. There are some suggestions that the marriage was not a terribly loving one (In his will, Shakespeare specifically left his "second best bed" to Anne) and Shakespeare must've spent quite some time away in London with his acting troop. But like almost everything about Shakespeare, very little is truly known; almost no documents (other than the plays) have survived.
The cottage is where Anne grew up, and the guides would have you believe that the seat before the fire-place is where Anne and William might've kissed and cuddled during their courtship.
Or rather, what remains of the seat! Mrs Mary Baker who lived in the cottage for much of the nineteenth century and acted as guide, wasn't too proud to sell an item or two for a few quid. It appears that pieces of the "love seat" were particularly popular. The guide also told us about a guide who was working at the house billed as "Shakespeare's Birthplace" who also sold bits
Anne Hathaway's Cottage
The garden outside Anne Hathaway's Cottage. and pieces and became even more entrepreneurial and began manufacturing artefacts to sell, as well as claiming that she herself was descended from the great playwright. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, eventually got wind of this and fired her. Undaunted, she purchased another cottage across the road, labelled it "Shakespeare's Birthplace" (in competition) and continued manufacturing and selling keepsakes.
The guide basically just chatted to us, but, as you can tell from the story above, he was very entertaining. He gave us a lot of "doubtful" information about the Shakespeare legend (In fairness, he pointed out the dubiousness of much of the information almost as soon as he had imparted it). He also gave us examples of the etymology of some common English phrases from everyday objects and practices from Shakespeare's time.
Some of the plethora of examples he gave us included:
People ate off a board which was placed on supports to serve as a table from this we get the expressions:
• Head of the board - The head male of the family who sat at "the top" of the board
• Above board - From card gaming, keeping your hands above the table where
Welford-on-Avon
Some of the quaint thatched cottages in Welford-on-Avon. they could be seen meant that you were "above board" and playing fairly.
• Board Games: Not gems with boards, but games played on the board.
When the theatre came to town, these boards where given a new use and were put together to create a makeshift stage. Hence actors "tread the boards".
Prior to plates being used, meals were eaten off square pieces of wood called trenchers. This gives us
• A good square meal - a decent feed
• Good trencherman - someone who eats the whole of their meal - hence clears the trencher
And you thought "having a roof over your head" referred to a house. Wrong; it refers to having a bed with a canopy.
Commonly used words also spring from that time. It was the duty of the lady of the house to douse the cooking/heating fire at bed time to prevent conflagrations arising from domestic fires left unextinguished at night (Take note ladies: if she failed to do so, her husband was entitled to beat her with a birch not thicker than his thumb.). The French couvre-feu literally means "the cover fire" and from a corruption of this we
Four Alls
If you can read the sign, the "four alls" are written on each edge of the sign. get the English "curfew".
This is only a small taste of some of the etymologies he gave us.
The oldest parts of the house (such as the hall and kitchen) pre-date Shakespeare, however the left "higher" section of the house was added in 1623. Further alterations were made to the original section in the late 1600s. Actually navigating through the rooms via narrow, steep and uneven staircases gives you an insight into what, apart from physical labour, kept people fit in the middle ages.
The rooms are furnished with period furniture throughout. Little of the actual furniture from Shakespeare's day remain. What there is has been supplemented with furniture from the late 1600s/early 1700s.
The fact that it was "Anne Hathaway's" Cottage had little effect on me, but it was extremely interesting seeing how people had lived in the 1600s.
Marion enjoyed exploring the garden. The garden was planted in 1892 and has been maintained as a garden from this era. Marion and Owen had a competition to see who could get the best picture of a bumble bee.
We completed our tour of the house just in time as about 4 or 5
Warwick Castle
Our first view of Warwick Castle. bus tours landed there practically simultaneously creating a massive queue.
We escaped the crush of the masses and headed to Welford-Upon-Avon, a nearby town with some lovely old thatched and slate-tiled houses. Owen also found his favourite pub name: "Four Alls".
The Four Alls is quite an unusual name for a pub, but is based on a Medieval concept regarding the division of society.
The King: "I rule all"
The Priest: "I pray for all"
The Knight: "I fight for all"
The Peasant: "I pay for all"
Travelling back up the road we headed for Warwick Theme Park (sorry, I mean Warwick Castle). On my honeymoon over 20 years ago, Warwick had been my first castle; but it was far my favourite; I think that accolade went to Harlech. Having scanned the Warwick Castle website for this trip I was not hopeful that it had improved.
There seemed a fair amount of traffic around the castle. We finally found a parking spot, but it was a good 30 min uphill walk to the castle. We purchased our tickets at the stables Courtyard, still around 5 minutes from the castle (but at least it was flat
Bowman
The bowman makes his grand entry - looking like a packhorse. the rest of the way). It was advertised that on the lawns outside the castle we could see "The Bowman" in 10 minutes time. The programme promised that we could "listen to his tales of battle and let him take you through the art of archery".
We wandered around to find a cordoned off area various pieces of equipment, pennants, boxes, shields, a medieval style chair and (we must be in the right place) a target on the bank.
A gentleman dressed in medieval type garb carrying a couple of wrapped bows, a very large quiver packed with arrows and a couple of other pieces of equipment soon turned up. He spoke briefly to the crowd about various aspects of bowmanship and drilled us in making appropriate noises at various times during his performance. He warmed up by shooting a couple of arrows into the target on the back and then asked for a victim, eh, volunteer from the audience. A young girl named Maddie was offered up by her friends on the excuse that it was her birthday. Some friends!
He then put on quite a performance of describing what various weapons would do to her
Maddie
Maddie ended up fully equipped for battle - much to the delight of her "friends". and slowly, piece by piece, attired her in a suit of armour. The show he put on was very entertaining and although he imparted some info about battles and bowmanship, it was pretty minimal and much more about entertainment.
The best part of "The Bowman" for me was after he had finished the formal show and most people had drifted away, when we were able to have a semi-private chat with him about various type of arrows and a couple of the more technical aspects of archery.
Leaving the bowman in peace to pack up his goods and chattels, we actually entered the castle. On entering there was a booth where you could pay to shoot 5 arrows at targets "kiddy-distance" away. (Actually they weren't "kiddy-distance" since the targets for the kids were closer, but they certainly much closer than the bowman's or any competition I've seen.)
Owen and I both had 5 shots, I at least managed to hit the actual target twice (with the first and last of my arrows, so it wasn't as if I improved with practice). Owen's results were even less impressive.
We then wandered over to the "Ghost Tower". This
Arrow
The Bowman showed us various different arrows and explained exactly what each one was for. was pretty lame. It had actors acting out scenes from a supposed murder that was committed 4 hundred years ago, It was basically a ghost train ride minus the train. Thick mist (dry ice, I suspect) filled the tower; people draped in black would jump out and scream or shout and the actors would move suddenly in unexpected directions. A total waste of time and money.
Next we investigated the Chapel, Great Hall and State Rooms which are the lavishly furnished rooms in the heart of the castle. The Chapel and State Rooms were certainly extravagant but not to the extent that we saw in the state rooms of Buckingham Palace or the French chateaus. The Great Hall contained an impressive display of armour and weapons.
Owen and I decided to walk the ramparts (which included climbing each of the towers) as the only way to explore them nowadays is to do a complete circuit (although there is an "emergency exit" for those who find it too strenuous after Guy's Tower (the first of the large towers).
My main difficulty was that my backpack tending to snag on the roof in the tight spiral staircases. The circuit
Two Arrows!
Yes, the bowman was asked to fire two arrows at once. Guess what; it doesn't work! provided not only vigorous exercise but also some fine views from the tower tops of the town and countryside below.
Owen and I then went on to visit an exhibition in the courtyard called 1471. For those who've forgotten a short history follows to help jog your memory.
The Wars of the Roses were intermittent civil wars fought by members of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III.
The White Rose was the symbol of Yorkist supporters who opposed the rival House of Lancaster, whose symbol was the Red Rose of Lancaster. The opposition of the two parties, symbolised by the red and white roses gave the wars their name - the Wars of the Roses.
The rivalry between the house of York and the House of Lancaster started when King Richard II was overthrown by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399. But the Wars of the Roses actually began on May 22, 1455 with First Battle of St Albans when Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard, Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians
Archery
Dad and I try our hand at archery. We need practice! under Edmund Beaufort who was killed. York captured the Lancastrian king, Henry VI.
Richard, Earl of Warwick, earned the title "Kingmaker" during the Wars of the Roses as the very large faction who followed him tended to tip the balance in his faction's favour. Throughout the first phases of the war the kingmaker supported the Yorkist cause. For many years while the Yorkist Edward IV was king, Warwick, the Kingmaker, was the power behind the throne. Eventually in 1470, Richard switched sides to the Lancastrian cause.
On April 14, 1471 at the Battle of Barnet the "Kingmaker" was killed and any hopes for the Lancastrian cause died with him.
There was an exhibition called 1471 which Owen and I went to have a look at called 1471. It showed dummies posed getting ready for battle, plus some fairly pointless audio-visual effects. Owen and I aborted the presentation at a convenient exit point about two-thirds of the way through, as we were not finding it either edifying or enjoyable, and the entire background of the Wars of the Roses was being ignored.
We rejoined Marion who had been The Royal Weekend Party exhibition. The castle rooms were
Armoury
Warwick Castle has a fair collection of arms and armour, all arranged in pretty patterns! decorated for one of the infamous weekend parties held there in Victorian times. Guests included Vita Sackvillle-West, the Prince of Wales ("Bertie") and the young Winston Churchill. Each room presented a part of the weekend, even including a maid running a bath.
Together we walked back outside the courtyard and around a corner of the castle down to the riverbank for the afternoon firing of the trebuchet. A large group of spectators had gathered on the grassy bank to view the event. The trebuchet was on the far side of the river, along with the small team that were going to fire it.
A trebuchet is a very powerful type of medieval catapult used in sieges to hurl rocks at castle walls. The Medieval Trebuchet consisted of a lever (arm) with a sling attached. The siege engine's arm could measure up to 60 feet in length
A very large force was applied to the shorter end of the arm, the load is on the other longer end of the arm with the fulcrum in the middle. This force was usually applied by the use of heavy lead weights or a pivoting ballast box (filled with earth, sand
View
The views from the towers of Warwick Castle were stunning. or stones) fixed to the short end of the medieval trebuchet arm
A heavy stone, or other missile, was placed in a leather pouch that was attached by two ropes to the other, long, end.
When the arm was released, the force created by the falling weight propelled the long end upward and caused the missile to be flung in the air towards the target. The trebuchet was capable of hurling stones weighing 200 pounds with a range of up to about 300 yards.
The trebuchet at Warwick was going to fire a fiery ball as a demonstration. Our friend "the Bowman" MC'd the firing from the far side of the river explaining how the machine functioned and described the actions of the volunteers setting it up.
This trebuchet had a large piece of rock as a counterweight; it is contained in the large box that can be seen on the far side of the machine. The rock and box were raised by human "hamsters" revolving the two large wheels at the bottom by walking around inside them.
Once the counterweight was raised and the arm lowered, the arm was secured in place. The "human
Tudor Houses
A whole line of Tudor houses could be seen from the battlements of Warwick Castle. hamsters" then unwound the wheels, so that they wouldn't spin furiously and dangerously when the arm was released.
The oil- soaked load was then put in place (I think it was a rock with an oil-soaked rage tied around it. The load was fired, a few moments spent waiting for the fire to catch fully and then the pin was pulled.
The huge arm began slowly rising, then gathered speed and the fiery projectile flew into the air. It wasn't a shot that any general could've been proud of as it sailed off on a too high a projector (deliberately) to limit the range. The rock plopped back to earth about 100m further along the riverbank. Although I found the conclusion slightly anti-climatic it had been a clever demonstration.
It was a long walk back to our car, but at least it was downhill this time.
Tonight we were going to a medieval banquet, supposedly on April 13, 1471 prior to the Battle of Barnet. We were supposed to be Richard, the Kingmaker's, knights gathering the night before the battle. It seemed rather strange for them to re-enact the banquet before Richard Neville's final loss, rather
Bowman!
The bowman reappeared to MC the trebuchet firing. than one of his more successful campaigns.
When we arrived back at the B&B our costumes had arrived. Owen and I were going as knights (he the young eager squire, and me the old, grizzled warrior?) and Marion had a princess costume (at least that's what the label said).
We drove to the castle car park listed on the ticket. Fortunately this was much closer than the one we had used earlier in the day. As we arrived a rather bemused taxi driver pulled up with 4 ladies in medieval dress.
All the banqueters assembled in the stables courtyard for a pre-dinner drink or two. It was rather a strange mixture. About half of those present were in medieval dress, half of the rest hadn't bothered to "dress up" and were in everyday cloths while the remaining quarter were in French musketeer type costumes (long black frizzy hair, jaunty hats and foils). Chatting to a couple of the "Frenchies" we discovered that there had been a "French Revolution" type banquet scheduled for the previous day, but it failed to attract sufficient numbers and had been cancelled, so the organisers rolled their tickets over and placed them into
Trebuchet
The huge trebuchet, not yet readied or loaded. tonight's event.
We followed a pair of employees dressed as a woodsman and a washer woman, up to the castle. Ironically, we entered the 1471 display exactly where Owen and I had left it and made our way through the remaining exhibits to the dining hall.
Thankfully, the event didn't descend into a food fight (or fisticuffs) or anything unsavoury as I had feared it might. Almost the whole of our long table had got into the mood of the night and were in fancy dress. Owen and I were sitting alongside a pair of the four women who had arrived earlier in the night by taxi; it turned out that it was one of the lady's "hen's night".
The meal was reasonable (if not truly medieval as there were both potatoes and tomatoes amongst the other ingredients) if not overly memorable. During the courses, and the gaps between them, we were entertained by a pair of musicians and a magician (and a drunk down the front who continued making a fool of himself throughout the night.) There were the mandatory sing-alongs that seem to be required at this type of event, including a rendition of "Twelves
Human Hamsters
The human hamsters got to walk in the four wheels beneath the trebuchet to bring the arm down for loading. days of Christmas" that began "On the first day of battle, Lord Warwick sent to me..." Each table had their own line, and although we helped our table out with their bit, we couldn't resist singing the Jasper Carrott version for the last five days in the general sing-along:
"5 Baby Shams
4 Double Diamonds
3 Black and Tans
2 nips of gin
and a wee heavy and a half pint"
(Jasper Carrott is an English comedian and his true love sends him alcoholic drinks on each day of Christmas until he's totally inebriated by about the seventh verse of the song.)
We went home to our B&B feeling quite full and merry and slept soundly.
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