A packed weekend

Well that was fun! Early on Saturday the entire local familial tribe headed down to Sudeley Castle, for some reason Bratii Pater has a bee in his bonnet about doing family things and getting the Bratii interested in history etc. As Sudeley had a medieval tourney staged this seemed an ideal opportunity.

For those who recall the weather on Saturday morning the word fog probably springs to mind and the M5 carried warnings to that effect for most of the journey down. As such we had dressed for typical English weather - I myself was wearing a heavy pair of trousers, a medium coat, and a light shirt this was fortunate as upon arrival the sun burned away all the fog leaving a faultless sky (for those non-English who despair at our fashion sense these changes in weather may act towards some explanation).

We endured only one minor hiccup as we headed in as for some reason my uncle (whom we were following) decided to ignore the big sign pointing us to the castle and instead follow a track to Winchcombe directly. As this was most pointedly not the direction the local authority wished us to travel no further indicators were present and only some fortunate guesswork based on direction got us back onto the main route.

Having parked we headed for the shops to enter the grounds (£7.20 for adults) into the grounds we followed the short garden route through to the Tithe Barn and Carp pond where we greeted by a huge dragonfly who teasingly would hold still for photographs until you achieved a zoomed focus lock at which point it would flit away.

For reasons unknown to me we then headed back and around to the pheasantry where we admired the plumage of those birds bold enough to be seen, then around to the Queen's Garden at which point the rest of the family made it clear that they were, in fact, looking for the first medieval event.

"It was to the right of where we started", I pointed out (we having turned left)
"Well why didn't you say something?", my mother asked
"Because a) nobody asked and b) nobody said that's where they wanted to go"
"So how do we get there?"
"Through the door there", I pointed.

To which we then duly headed. To understand the next part a short description of the Queen's Garden is necessary. Imagine a square aligned to the cardinal points bordered by hedges sitting in a larger grassed square, place this at level one. Now picture an embankment running along the southern edge at level two and a second embankment running along the western edge at level three. We have entered at the south-east and at the point this conversation takes place are at the south-west point; the door we require is to the north-west.

The Bratii Famile have chunked down the embankment from level 2 to level 1, I am lagging behind slightly and turn to see my parents gingerly stepping down this short but steep slope. I head past and take the concealed stairs to level three and start to walk along it when I'm hailed.

"What are you doing up there?"
"Walking to the end. I don't know why you went down the slope"
"How did you get up there?"
"I took the steps"
"What steps?"
"There were some steps behind those urns"
"Well why didn't you say something?"
"Because you were halfway down before I noticed what you were doing"
"Well how are you going to get down?"
"I'll use the steps at the other end"
"What steps?"

At which point I could only shrug. No steps were visible from our location or when we'd walked along, the steps aren't marked on the map and there was neither anyone coming towards me or in front of me to give any indication that such existed; I just knew there were steps - go figure.

Down the steps at the end I go and we head towards "Battle!" or at least the field in which it's being held. Watching our step we head for the ladies archery that was just about to start. Quite enjoyable too until the end when the knights in the next field starting setting up and shouting at the crowd at which point three-quarters of the audience tramped off to that field. I stayed as I thought it rude to leave the ladies hanging, Bratus Major stayed with me. Once that was done we headed over to the main field for the jousting.

Sad to say that it had been set-up to present to the crowd coming from the house (the direction we would have taken had anyone said anything) except the knights were housed in the four corners so they needed cheering sections along every edge. As such you can imagine the situation in that when 'our' knight competed we couldn't see much. The compèring also lacked as the young lady doing so would refer to the knights by name and/or title, but neglect to inform us as to their heraldry. So from our end the knight in red would joust against the knight in green

Nevertheless it was all fun until the last battle which took place on foot in the corner furthest away from us.

Food, glorious food then onto the exhibitions proper within the castle. The layout needed some work we headed through the main door and onto the first set of exhibits which were bits, stirrups, coins etc. dug up by Emma.

"Am I missing something here?" I address to Bratii Pater

He reads the text "Um?"

"Who's Emma?" I ask.
"Ah, yes good point"

From later information we assume it to be Emma Dent. Anyway we head through towards the steps and a sign pointing outside to the spiral staircase... we take the stairs. Nothing exciting, but we do make a note that the current floor level dissects a door arch indicating the ceiling was originally much higher. Onward and upward to the main room with clothing and fabric from Henry VIII. i point out how short the models are and we see the exit to the spiral staircase that we should have used "No Entry" (except in emergency). Heading further in I take a photograph of a handwritten page of "On the Origin of Species" and then continue to a room detailing General Gordon.

Back out and down the way we came and this time we head outside to the spiral staircase which warns us that there are 26 steep stairs. This is next to a sign positioned by the door we just exited informing us that it's a no entry. So anyone following the signs and thinking "I'm not going up that spiral" should technically walk all the way around to the front of the building to enter again... sod that.

Onto the Knot Garden which I managed to take a nice photo of once a group had stopped fannying around - through the arch and out of sight, camera up just as they come back into view and stand in the arch, repeat until bored. In a stroke of good fortune we lost Bratus Major, but sadly found him again and headed back to the front following the smell of the barbecue.

"Please pay iside" was the instruction written on a piece of cardboard propped up by the door to the Coffee Shop. I guessed this referred to the barbecue as no exchange of money was taking place so we headed 'iside' and joined what was hopefully the correct queue of two formed.

This isn't just a hot-dog this is a open-farmed pork sausage in a bun, this isn't just a burger it's an Aberdeen Angus burger in a bun. Anyway I and Major bought hot-dogs got our tickets and headed back outside to queue there now. The sign had blown down so I got Major to put it back up for them and he did so without complaint (or thanks). A large group in front of us was missing a member who turned up and fancied something off the BBQ, the guy running it said she could pay them rather then go inside and wait in the queue, then got confused and she ended up inside anyway.

Anyway the hot-dog was nice, shame the mustard was the wrong type and the chilli was a bit 'large flakey', but it filled a hole before we set out for the foot battle.

Capitalising on our error from last time we set ourselves up where we knew the fighting was going to take place, sadly this meant that the position of features ran us, knights, sun; not good.

The fighting was fun, obviously choreographed so I won't spoil anything, but really fun. What gave it a true medieval edge was the family (families?) next to us with around three or four children aged between around 5 to 8 who shimmied up the fence to cling onto the standards. Once the fighting had started and I'd told them who we were routing for (due to our position) the battle was encouraged by cries of "Hit 'im", "Cut 'im" "Whack 'im" "Cut 'is 'ead off" and "Cut 'is bollocks off" all highly appropriate for the re-creation.

That done we headed over to the play area which featured its own castle of which Minor had been itching to see. Okay sad to say the play castle was way cooler then the real one. The main fort had a corridor running along the outer edge with various egresses to the outside. A stair opposite the main open entrance led to the battlements and ran around the fort and up into a covered fortification over the door. From the battlements there were two three-storey towers at the rear connected at the tops . Back down to the battlements you could head outside the fort to two more towers connected by walkways above each other and leading down and away to the outside. That's not to mention the slide and zip-line at the rear of the fort. As I said - way cool nd difficult to drag them off it.

In fact the only thing missing was a maze, which was a shame as they had a large space next to the fort for one, ah well.

Back out and onto the gift shop where a plethora of choice fused Minor's brain, I picked up some mustard and a bookmark. Then home again, home again.

We set off around 10, got there around 11 and left around 4 and a fun time was had by all.

Sunday was taken up by a large excursion to dinner at Cadmore Lodge, the bruschetta with cured ham was most fine, as was the turkey with bacon and sausage roll, the Lemon and Lime cheesecake however was a little bland not enough of either lemon or lime. Pleasant things were also said about the baked flat mushroom and the strawberry baskets. I've been here several times and the menus do shift around, and I've yet to disappoint to any major degree by anything I've chosen.

Well as you can tell I had no chance to take pictures of Buftons or the scaffolding outside the old Outback club, ah well.