Stepping back in time

Mad rush of preparation, as ever, added to in some ways and made better in others by having Big Alice here on Friday night so that she could travel with us on Saturday, definitely added to by my uncle and aunt coming round for a visit and to deliver my mother’s bureau, which fits nicely in the front room, and totally added to by J having a music theory exam on the Saturday morning! Many thanks to Gina and Dave for having him over for a sleepover, which meant we did not need to take him to the exam, and then adding to their helpfulness by collecting him and giving him lunch and taking him with them to their next engagement so that we did not need to collect him until en route to Kentwell 😀
Big Alice took K in her car, so we could fold down the whole of the boot and thereby fit in all our stuff without having to use a roof box. It was also much easier this year since we were only packing for Kentwell and not trying to squeeze in everything we would need for a week at Kessingland afterwards.
Anyhoo…
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, in that usual very light drizzle which always seems to come out of a totally cloudless sky as soon as you park and begin to unload a tent 😕 Ignoring it we checked in and pitched the tent anyway, feeling slightly smug when the large frame tent (thanks HH 😀 ) took less time to put up than all the dome and tunnel tents around us. The children helped a bit, flitting between Alice and us as they tried to decide whose jobs looked more fun, and we all had “helpers’ chocolate” 😉 then unloaded sleeping bags etc and set up ready for the evening. By the time we had walked to the house we were a little late for tea (mostly because we had been expecting it to be late on the first day but it wasn’t) and unfortunately got there just as the veggie option ran out, so the children got spinach and mushroom lasagne while the adults got leftover spinach and mushroom filling with cheese grated on top – either way not a great option for the three of us ho don’t eat mushrooms, although good news for K, Bob and Alice, who do 😆 Usual exchanges of news, meetings and greetings, then time to wash up (the practically-patented 5 bowl washing up system not yet in place, so all a bit random) and head back to the tent for what was meant to be an early night but didn’t turn out that way.
Sunday morning seemed to start too early, but we managed to get everyone into kit and down to the undercroft in time for porridge, toast and beans, then washed up (5 bowl system – yay!) and over to the Cott to report in and drop stuff off, then back to the house to deliver the boys to the schoolroom and sign bits of paper saying they remained our responsibility whatever happened. Somewhere along the line I put Bob’s lenses in for him (one week a year is not enough to get used to doing it, it seems) and we had a quick check to make sure all signs of 21st century life were removed or covered.
Weekends are public days, when visitors come onto the manor from around 11 and stay until about 5:30, which makes for quite a long day as they could appear at any time so you must always be in role. In the cotte we had pottage to cook, but no list of which stations we should be feeding or how many people to expect. In the end we estimated 2 score and 10 and cooked enough (pottage, pease pudding and a dish of worts) for a few more just in case, then rang the pottage bell and walked about asking all those we thought might be assigned to the cotte if they knew where they should be eating. We must have served about 60 as well as ourselves (a dozen or so, including children) and we had run out by the time the potters arrived, saying that they had been assigned to the cotte for the first time in 20 years and did we have anything left. Then a few more randoms arrived, whom we also had to turn away 🙁 A front sward sottler arrived to ask if we knew what was going on, as the potters had gone back to them for pottage with the result that they had now also run out, and we worked out that between us we had fed about 40 more people than expected! At least they had a copy of the list, so we were able to see who should have been eating at the cotte, which made things easier for the rest of the week. It was almost a relief, though, when there turned out not to be enough supper that night and the catering manager complained that he had fed 60 more people than he had expected – at least we had been counting correctly and the fault was not really ours!
By the time we had had supper each evening (served from 6:30; families with children under 8 able to queue-jump, thank goodness) and then washed up and walked back to the campsite there was no such thing as an early night, even before any evening entertainments were added in, so the first Monday was already a struggle in terms of getting children up and about in time 🙁 On weekdays breakfast is served from 7:30 – 8:30 and the first school party enters between 9:15 and 9:30, so everything is a bit more of a rush. They follow a set route, however, so the actual day on station/in role is shorter because you have a rough idea of when each group will get to you and you know that once they have gone past they are unlikely to return. Since bookings are down this year and lots of groups needed to be back at school in time for coaches to turn into school buses there were quite a few days when the last party came in not long after lunch and left by 4:30, which meant a very early finish for those early on in the route; the cotte was about a third of the way round the manor route so would be clear of visitors by 2:30, although still on view from a distance. It was a good time to fetch vegetables, wash up, walk about a little and also get a head start on onion chopping for the next day.
I’m hoping J will write his own account of what they did in the schoolroom; I have heard snippets of things like “We learned how to slit a Spaniard open and pull his guts out!” 😮 and I know they did heraldry, learned a few prayers and some Latin phrases and ate wine gums 😆 but judging by the little books they have each bought home there must have been much more besides 😀
Evening ents were better than I remember from last year, but still not as varied and organised as I remember from my old KH days, many summers since. We had Tudor games, a campfire singsong for the children (and brewhouse/bakehouse version for the adults) and of course the great Summer Solstice celebrations, including making and then burning a variety of station-specific green men, most with unfeasibly large phalluses (and try explaining that to small children!) and some impromptu dancing. Sadly the ceilidh we had been promised did not happen 🙁 so I’m feeling rather hard done by – must find a ceilidh soon!
Washing machine now working its socks off, so I should go and hang out some washing while the weather is still good for drying…