Monday, 3 May 2010

Living History at Lulworth

Pic by Chris Downer

Yesterday we went off to see our friends at the Living History event at Lulworth Castle. They were fortunate to have comfy seats in a window alcove on the ground floor of the castle close to the stairs going down to the kitchens and up to the top of one of the towers.

The castle is just four walls and a roof with a tower at each corner. It was most likely built as a hunting lodge, certainly not as a defensive structure. First built early in the 1600s, most of the changes in the intervening centuries were stripped from the interior by a fire that took hold in 1929. Much restoration work has been done since then but the walls inside have been left as the original stonework. Yesterday it was filled with Living History personnel who brought along many fascinating 17th century objects and the genteel crafts that would have been practised by the aristocracy of the time and their servants.

Outside was a tented village where we could see the rougher occupations practised by the commoners of the time. A battle demo was scheduled for 4 pm, but we missed that. The weather was showery, blustery and very cold. After we'd seen everything available, we left them to it and headed back to await our friends' return in the comfort of home.

6 comments:

Brenda said...

Thanks for sharing that picture. What a great looking castle! The history is very interesting.

Selina said...

wow what a nice cstle.. wish I get to see it too.

Unknown said...

Thanks Brenda. Would you believe I forgot to take my camera? But I found the pic at Wikimedia Commons and it's probably much better than any I would have taken.

Unknown said...

Rather a long way for you to come Selina. But maybe one day...

One of The Guys said...

Castles intrigue me, but can you imagine living in one? Freaky!

I hope you've been doing well.

Unknown said...

Hi Guy

In a corner at Lulworth they were displaying an ancietn bed. I said you can see why they had to have all the heavy drapes - to keep the draughts out. LOL.

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