English Hertiage FOV

[Pford75]

Having gardened myself to the bone on Saturday, we opted for a family day out yesterday.

We decided to head to EH's Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall in Northants http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.9427

Was a thoroughly enjoyable day out, with re-enactments from everything from gladiatorial contests, Roman legions, Medieval battles, Agincourt, Jousting and D-Day (complete with spitfires). It was refreshing to see that the focus was on keeping the history alive, with lots of things to do and see in between the re-enactments (seeing how knights were dressed and how long it took), talking with veterans of WW2 and many more things. Given that EH got some poor press recently, it was good to see it behind such a fantastic event. The emphasis was very much on English history which is refreshing in these very PC times.

We didn't have chance to see anything of Kelmarsh Hall, but it did look wonderful from a distance - has anyone actually been inside?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Having gardened myself to the bone on Saturday, we opted for a family day out yesterday.

We decided to head to EH's Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall in Northants http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.9427

Was a thoroughly enjoyable day out, with re-enactments from everything from gladiatorial contests, Roman legions, Medieval battles, Agincourt, Jousting and D-Day (complete with spitfires). It was refreshing to see that the focus was on keeping the history alive, with lots of things to do and see in between the re-enactments (seeing how knights were dressed and how long it took), talking with veterans of WW2 and many more things. Given that EH got some poor press recently, it was good to see it behind such a fantastic event. The emphasis was very much on English history which is refreshing in these very PC times.

Hmmmm. Roman Legions, Agincourt, D-Day. Yes, Jonny Foreigner had no part to play in any of those :shock:

 

[skier-hughes]

The emphasis was very much on English history

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Well, to be honest I can't really see English Heritage sponsoring a day devoted to the Spanish Reconquista. What is this "non-English" history that, by implication, is being promoted?

 

[Pford75]

Gareth - For someone who used the 'toys out of pram' phrase recently...you're a little sensitive on a Monday morning :wink:

Perhaps my phraseology wasn't great. What I was trying to say was that the focus was on the role of the English within each of those conflicts....not on telling the historical story of what happened, but how it felt to be English standing on the hill at Agincourt or landing on the beaches at Normandy. It acknowledged that there were Americans, Anzacs and many others with the Allies and many others with the Axis forces, but that was not the point....the point was to instill a sense of history about the English.

Too often, films are produced by Hollywood where the truth is distorted or the focus exclusively American. My 9 year old actually said on the way home.."I never realised that we (England) did all those things" - sad really, but how nice to have (whisper it quietly) a sense of national pride reinstalled.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

That's OK - I just had a nasty feeling we were about to go off into Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells territory, where EH should not be spending public money on (insert list of bizarre prejudices here).

That said, I've just been asked to choose lunch next week from a menu which includes something called "Traditional Beef Lasagne". There's so much that doesn't seem quite right in that phrase, but in any case I think I'd actually prefer "Unconventional Beef Lasagne" if it was offered.

 

[Penners]

(insert list of bizarre prejudices here).

It's a constant source of irritation to me that, while I hold reasonable but firmly held beliefs, everyone else seems to have bizarre prejudices.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We spent a fab day on Saturday at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales - where the had an English Civil War re-enactment. Yes, I know the Welsh and even the Scots had a bit of a look in, but this was English History :wink:

Seriously, it was a fantastic re-enactment; battles must have been very very noisy and confusing.

I doubt they had ambulances turning up nee-naw style and ferrying off the injured as on Saturday, though!

 

[yamin]

I love EH! Since having our children a lot of its properties, and National Trusts too, have become our second (and much larger/grander etc) gardens! Fantastic places to take the children. Favourites that tick all the boxes (climbing potential, run around like crazy bandits potential, interesting history, beauty etc) are

Goodrich Castle (drop a stone down the well, it 'plops' a full 3 seconds AFTER you would expect!)
Kenilworth Castle (great for re-enactments and climbing)
Witley Court (Fountain, lots to explore and my, what a wonderful cafe)
Hanbury Hall (Smaller and exquisite, formal garden, great and very 21st century playground, trees to climb!)
Packwood House (hide and seek in 500 year old yews, fabulous)
Baddesley Clinton (lets wind the parents up by balancing on the edge of the full and deep moat! Great reproduced priest hole to play in)

Wish we could have made the re-enactment weekend you mentioned, sounds fabulous!

 

[yamin]

Furthermore, they are also wonderful peaceful places to spend a bit of time contemplating your navel (? spelling??) sans children

 

[Gareth Hughes]

We spent a fab day on Saturday at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales - where the had an English Civil War re-enactment. Yes, I know the Welsh and even the Scots had a bit of a look in, but this was English History :wink:

Current PC-speak is to describe the "English Civil War(s)" as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (Wales is excluded from this as Scotland, and Cromwell in Ireland, get a look in) :roll:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

"Wars of the three Kingdoms"? Good grief - how anodyne and PC! :roll:

The Scots didn't really turn up until the second war I thought, and then only in the form of a few religious nutters (sorry to any lurking Covenanters). The Welsh, oddly enough given their treatment at the hands of the English over the preceding centuries, seem to have been strongly Royalist - certainly during the first war.

It must have been a very difficult time; with brother pitched against brother and father against son. Really seems to have quite literally torn the country apart. Notwithstanding the religious fervour of the time, I think they really felt they were fighting for the soul of the nation. Quite hard to imagine in a modern British context. What would prompt me to take up arms against my father? Or you against yours? Incredible.

I've always been puzzled by my sympathies - despite being a strong advocate of the supremacy and sovereignty of paliament and democracy (and recognising the fundamental part the wars played in our current consitutional settlement), I just know I would have been a Royalist during the war. Maybe, it's because they had better clothes. Cavaliers always look so dashing when compared to the dour Roundheads!

 

[worms]

As a potential "lurking covenanter" I have no objection to the use of the term English Civil war, although I don't think you should underestimate the significance that events in Scotland had on the course of the first civil war (or indeed the significance of the English civil war on the later rise of jacobite sentiments, union of parliaments, the '45 etc).

I might be a bit more prickly about any suggestion that there was an English army in Normandy on D-Day, which is thinly veiled in the acknowledgement that there "were Americans, Anzacs and many others with the Allies"...

 

[philpjuk100]

I live just outside newark where the scots paliamentarians camped (camp edinburgh)during the seiges.You cannot stick a spade in the ground without finding musket and cannon balls,bits of iron etc.I dont imagine that the royalists looked so smart after being under seige for three years! It still shocks me that the king was executed,and amazes me that our house was here during the sieges and is still standing!phil.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I just know I would have been a Royalist during the war. Maybe, it's because they had better clothes. Cavaliers always look so dashing when compared to the dour Roundheads!

As Sellars and Yeatman say in 1066 And All That - Wrong but Wromantic v Right but Repulsive

 

[JoceAndChris]

Ha! I'd have to be in the Wrong but Wromantic faction too.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Ha! I'd have to be in the Wrong but Wromantic faction too.

Which is very different to Wrong but Wromantic fiction. :roll:

GH - 1066 and all that. A book I still pick up and flick through and guffaw loudly at, despite having read a number of times. This is a Good Thing.

Phil - the Scots seemed to have travelled regulalry as far as Notts/Derbyshire, rampaging as they went. If they'd bought the Landranger map for Southern England, who knows how the course of history may have changed!

I grew up near Alton in Hampshire, scene of a minor battle. The school house opposite my secondary school as well as the church next door had visible musket shot marks in the stonework from one fierce skirmish in the churchyard - used to impress us boys greatly. I remember when the French exchange students came over, showing the marks to my penpal and explaining in rudimentary French how we were all fervent royalists - one in the eye for Napoleon!

 

[philpjuk100]

Yes the scots got as far as swarkstone bridge near melborne in derbyshire,I think the batteries in their sat nav must have failed!the church in here in kelham has musket ball craters round the door and iron rings on the wall inside for tethering horses when it was used as a stable during the "civil" war, phil.

 

[Penners]

Yes the scots got as far as swarkstone bridge near melborne in derbyshire

'Scuse me, but judging by the smart Morningside accent of one of my neighbours, they got as far south as Suffolk.

 

[philpjuk100]

I think you should have a word with your neighour and see why they sold king charles 1 to cromwell who beheaded him,and I think I will ask my japanese neighbour about pearl harbour!phil.