History Lessons

We've had a really good weekend. The only downside is that G hasn't been here to enjoy it with us. He's been in London at the High Voltage rock festival with his brother indulging in copious amounts of cider and loud music.



As you may well remember I'm never one to pass up on a free walking trail and yesterday as part of the city's Hidden Treasure's weekend they were offering a Treasure Trail for children. This turned out to basically be a walk around some of the Walls, which we did just a short time ago with Diane and Clare on our bloggy meet-up,






but on return and full completion of the trail the children were given a bag of goodies. S was very taken with the bright orange water bottle.

Here she is hard at work writing down one of the answers. We had to count the number of steps on one particular section and I let them do it a few times before letting them in on the fact that it was written on the information board at the bottom. But it was good exercise anyway!

I told them I was going to caption this photo as 'T and S on the loo', much to their disgust. This part of the old walls was actually the toilet which was 'flushed' when the tide came in.

This walkway has seen a lot of activity through the centuries. Here's G's mum walking through it into the town, but marching the other way Henry V led his troops to do battle in Agincourt and it was also from this spot that the Pilgrim father's left on the Mayflower.

Down near the docks we were able to walk along the top of the walls where soldiers would have once kept watch and had a good view of one of the very much larger (and friendlier) sea going vessels which visit our city these days.

Once the prizes were claimed we headed to Hoglands park for a well earned picnic and a sit down before escorting Grandma back to her bus stop for the journey home to Salisbury.

And so to today.

Another day, another city centre park.

This time our choice of place to picnic was Queen's Park. The reason being the city was holding an information gathering event with added entertainment in the form of 'Horrid History' being played out.

The park actually belongs to Queen's College and is leased to the council who maintain it. They are looking to redevlop the site and make it more user friendly and wanted input from the public as to what we would like to see there.

It was such a shame this string quartet were sat a little way away from where the main action was taking place, they played beautifully but couldn't really be fully enjoyed.

Whilst we were sat eating the chap seen here on the left with the bucket came over and introduced himself to us. He told us he was our local nightsoil man. S didn't have a clue what he meant until he clarified his employment as the man who takes away 'your poo, your chocolate logs, your excrement, whatever you might like to call it!' Cue loud 'yuck' noises from us all! He told us that the food we were eating looked like it was good quality and that 'the people who lives round here eat good quality too you know.' He then put his finger in the bucket and pulled out something very brown and lumpy looking which he proceeded to sniff and then lick off! Cue even louder yuck noises and lots of giggles.

We were then visited by this dashing man in green who told us that a show was about to start so

we trundled over and watched these 4 girls perform a skit to music which was really funny. The tallest one appeared to be a very stern cook and the others her kitchenmaids. There was lots of flour throwing and one of them ended up face down in a plate of whipped cream.

It was then over to a Victorain melodrama where extra cast members were plucked from the audience and T was chosen to play the part of the wicked Squire. We had to boo and hiss him each time he did something nasty. Although he wasn't overjoyed at being chosen he did all that was asked of him and really entered into the spirit of it.

Next was a WW2 playlet, but I couldn't see this as S needed a wee and by the time we returned it was just coming to an end.

The final performance was set in Tudor times with a fabulous looking Henry V111.

Before he came out to dine with us at the banquet his Queen chose children from the audience to act as dancers, musicians and artists. S was chosen, but wasn't at all keen, she tried to hide behind me.

T was also chosen again, along with me, to be presented to the King as Lord and Lady something-or-another. Can't remember the name as we were laughing too much and making sure we performed our bow and curtesy correctly so as not to get displease His Royal Highness!