At 6am on a cold and gloomy morning the coach was waiting at the school gates in readiness to take us to Stratford. The forecast was not good, high winds were expected and even the possibility of snow!
Our coach driver, Paul, greeted us and loaded our bags onto the coach and soon we were off.
We stopped en route at services near Oxford for a drink and a snack. Back on the busy road and it was now raining.There was a lot of spray from other vehicles which made visibility quite difficult. Despite the weather, we arrived early at Warwick and decided to visit Holy Trinity Church, the burial place of Shakespeare. We looked around the church and we saw where Shakespeare and his wife were buried. After a group photo inside the church we made our way back along the road to Hall's Place.
We were greeted by a lady who was to be our guide. She told us how Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, had married a highly-respected physician named Dr John Hall. She told us how the generous use of wood inside and on the outside of the house indicated the Hall family wealth. We were guided through the house and then into the walled garden which contained lots of herbs, the type John Hall may have used in his treatments.
Our next visit was Shakespeare's birthplace in the centre of town. The house was a beautiful timber-framed Tudor house. We walked through the guest bedreoom and continued through the house to a room where Shakespeare's father earned his living preparing leather for glove making. We went up a steep flight of steps and into the bedchambers, one of which is believed to be where Shakespeare was born in 1564. The floors were uneven and the rooms displayed rare examples of furnishings dating back to Shakespeare's time. After the bedchambers we went downstairs and out through the garden to the shop to purchase souvenirs.
We went on to the Shakespeare workshop, where we were shown how to act out a scene from Macbeth. First, we played a game to introduce ourselves then we were given some warm-up drama exercises, which were great fun. We divided into groups and each group had to arrange themselves into various given objects such as a crown, a snake, a castle, a tree. Finally, we were given scripts and we acted a scene from Macbeth. Most of us felt we were more confident as a result of the workshop and it had greatly improved our acting skills. We were complimented on our acting ability.
It was time to make our way to the hotel, The Falcon. It was a very attractive Tudor building with lots of oak timbers. Mrs Musgrave told us who we would be sharing a room with and we were given our keys and shown to our rooms. Our rooms were very comfortable and had en suite bathrooms, TV and coffee and tea making facilities.
It was time for dinner and Mrs Musgrave took us to the dining room where we were joined by Mrs Evans, Mr Williams and Mrs Hubbard. We had the choice of two different pastas with salad followed by delicious raspberry cheesecake.
After dinner we unpacked our cases and it was time to make our way a short distance down and across the road to the Town Hall where an historical Interpreter, Marc, was going to speak to us and tell us about Medieval England. He took us back to the War of the Roses and showed us how to draw
a longbow and a crossbow. Some of us dressed in battledress and padded armour. Marc dressed as a Knight and with the help of his lady he put on full body armour with chainmail, gauntlets and helmet. It was a very interesting and exciting evening and after thanking Marc we walked back to our hotel. In fact the whole day had been exciting and we were all tired. It wasn't too long before we were all in bed and asleep.
We awoke next morning and fortunately there was no sign of snow, just clear blue skies and sunshine! We enjoyed a superb breakfast of cereals, dried fruits, yogurt and of course full English breakfast!
After breakfast we packed and departed our hotel and were soon en route to Warwick Castle. On arrival at the castle we were greeted by our guide. He told us about the history of the castle. We went down into the dungeon and then inside the castle.
We visited many different rooms - The Kingmaker's Room, Countess Daisy's Boudoir, and many very elaborate bedrooms. There were waxworks of the Duke of York and the Duke of Marlborough. Lady Sackville-West and the Duchess of Sutherland were in another room. In the Music Room Lady Randolph Churchill was taking tea and entertaining guests. Then came the Kenilworth Bedroom and waxworks of Edward, Prince of Wales, Lord Curzon and the Prince's valet were in this room. The Chinese Bedroom was very beautiful. In fact all the bedrooms were beautifully furnished and really quite grand. We passed the Chapel to visit the State Rooms. The Great Hall was huge and very stately. Various drawing rooms and The Queen Ann Bedroom came next. There were so many rooms to look around and it gave us a real feel of what it would have been like to live there.
The Dining Room was set for a banquet and looked very inviting.
Outside we visited the ghost tower and some of us climbed the steps to walk the ramparts. We took turns in the stocks and even Mrs Evans went in! A final visit to the shop for last minute souvenirs and we were ready to walk to our coach to make the journey home. We were very amused (especially Mrs Evans), to see a coach parked next to ours with "Evans Tours" written across it! We had to have a photo st
op!
Our journey home was good and we arrived back at The Granville early. We felt quite exhausted but our 2 day trip had been very enjoyable and extremely informative. Thank you to Mrs Musgrave for all her hard work organising the trip.