Of Towers and Castles

I had a visit at half-term of 3/4 of a family. While dad was left working up in Cheshire, mother and kids came down. Main purpose was so that mother and daughter could see the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy. I did question on a scale of 1 to 10 how much looking at pictures of ballerinas would appeal to a 12 year old boy. No negative integers. So I suggested I take him off to the Tower of London instead.

Now the Tower is one of those places that only tourists seem to visit, never Londoners. This might have something to do with the exorbitant entrance charges, but its rather a pity as there is a lot there to see, and it is clearly the site of a lot of big events in British history, albeit a lot of them to do with beheading. And although there is much Victorian renovation, it is pretty impressive to have a big chunk of building which is almost a thousand years old now still standing in the middle of the City (the White Tower). But the complex also contains a good deal of subsequent building work and so is interesting from that viewpoint. You get a nice guided tour from one of the beefeaters (who are all ex-sergeants with more than 20 years good service, which is an interesting qualification for dressing up in silly clothes and making entertaining presentations to the public), and get to see the Crown Jewels of course (which singularly failed to impress my 12 year old companion, except as to the size of the queue to get in). But you can also walk across the walls. And most attractive to my young friend, there is a fair group of arms and armour to explore in the White Tower.

And there are the famous ravens too of course.

A somewhat lesser known fact is that the Tower was the precursor of London zoo in that it once contained the Royal menagerie. Obviously not easy to recreate that now, given animal (and human) welfare issues, but they have done their best with very clever life-size animal figures created out of chicken-wire.

All-in-all, the combination of beefeater humour, tales of torture and beheading, a stonking set of militaria (including a recently constructed dragon out of various weapons (eg flintlock pistols for claws))

, and the chance to walk around the walls and somewhere along the line gather a bit of history, make it a pretty decent outing for a young boy. (And mother and daughter seemed to enjoy both Degas and the Morris exhibition, and a stroll across sunny London, so a successful trip.)



Then at the weekend, I got taken up in the car to see the remaining member of the family, who was doing what every good husband should do, getting on the dinner for our arrival. We broke up the journey to Cheshire at pretty much the halfway point to visit Kenilworth Castle. Now notwithstanding it is very close to where I was brought up, its not somewhere I had visited as a boy. But of course castles are a bit of an attraction for the juvenile male. And Kenilworth has something for all. The truly intact castles, like say, nearby Warwick, are really a day's outing in their own right, and have to some degree been transformed into palaces in later life. At the other end of the spectrum, most British castles have ended up in ruins, which while they might make for a nice picnic spot, or a romantic photo opportunity, they don't offer too much to detain you.

Although basically ruined, there is still enough to keep your interest at Kenilworth, including the gate house which had been converted into a residence after the castle was deliberately ruined after the Civil War. There was certainly enough to engage my young companion, and we were doing some real exploration, trying to work out the original walls and later additions. Nice when they do some real  thinking rather than just being dragged round exhibits.  And English Heritage had cleverly restored the Elizabethan garden to make that worth looking around.

More interesting still, they have plans to dam the valley again and surround the castle with a mere as it had been in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately they need to raise a six-figure sum just to do a feasibility study, and a seven-figure one to bring the project to fruition. But apart from the attractive setting, having water and so I guess scope for fishing and recreational boating would make the place a real draw. And how hard can it be, given John O'Gaunt managed it in the 14th century with some peasants?

And then finally to Cheshire, family reunited and some family board games after dinner. And before. And some wine. All very agreeable.

On Sunday roles were reversed, mother and kids went off to do church things leaving myself with the paterfamilias. We went off to a city I had never knowingly visited, Stoke-on-Trent, to look round the Wedgwood Museum. Now strangely this museum has some pensions law connections with which I shall not bore you. You probably think a museum devoted to pots is dull enough on its own. But, while I admit it takes a bit of stamina and by the end I was rather more intent on getting my lunch, its a really interesting place. Yes honestly. Its interesting in seeing how the industry built up, and its interesting as history of design from the 18th to 20th centuries. I do happen to like a lot of Georgian ceramics, so that helps, but it is also fascinating to contemplate just what a major figure Josiah Wedgwood was. I liken him to Steve Jobbs or Bill Gates, in that he didn't just design pots, but basically created an entire industry. He did the scientific development to make new pots desirable, marketing them around the world, and building up the premises, including getting a canal built. A true industrialist and one without whom it is doubtful there would have been that much of an industry in the Potteries at all. A real mover and shaker, who single-handedly was responsible for the livelihoods of thousands of people. And I bet you didn't know he had a wooden leg!

For lunch a bit of reconnaissance on the Internet had shown that there was a pub just down (Wedgwood's) canal. A pint and a carvery meal with one of my oldest friends on a sunny day by a rural waterway is hard to beat. Although it was not quite the canal side pub I had imagined. Unfortunately, what is beside the canal is the pub car park, not the pub, although they did their bast by sticking a few tables beyond all the cars. But they were rather isolated by the tow path. But food and drink went down very well at astonishingly low prices for those of us used to London pubs (£11 roast lunch for TWO).