After I had dropped Katy at the baby shop to follow the family tradition, I drove into town to try to take all 5 to Stourbridge Fair. I’d heard about it for a while, and driven past the Leper Chapel many times, but somehow never got to either.
We managed to arrive there 2 hours early – we had somehow been told the time for stallholders to arrive rather than proper opening times. The air cadets were being stewards, and their nice officer told me about a playground that was only a few minutes’ walk away. It happened to take us by where we got the cats a long time ago – the swings was more of a draw than going round so we pressed on.
It was a good playground – a nice small people’s bit and a bigger people’s bit. Occasionally an eight would row by or the big tourist boat. I kept them happy and occupied until it was time to go back.
(I’ve now had 2 attempts by WordPress to eat this entry, so I’ll keep it short and quit while I’m winning.)
We saw quite a few Kentwellies, one of K’s nursery school teachers who’s also a story-teller in her spare time so she dragged the big 4 off while I wandered with A in the sling. A colleague turned up in full 13th century gear (chainmail, sword etc.) with his partner as they do SCA and thought they could show some sword stuff, but there wasn’t room for it. I encouraged them to visit Kentwell, and I hope the bigger scale and variety will appeal more than the rules and strictness might put them off.
There were some proctors, who had nice equipment from the past police / weights and measure duties (a halberd, a big book of statutes, and a set of weights). They claimed to be the oldest police force in the world; I just thought that they were some nice blokes just short of retirement in fancy clothes with a couple of polearms. Very Cambridge.
I also had a nice chat with a traditional woodworker – encouraged him to visit Kentwell too. He asked me which of his tools would be used at Kentwell, and quite a few would: spoke shave, pole lathe, brace and bit, adze, bow saw and a huge axe and wedges for splitting wood – all lovely, lovely things – beautiful, nothing manly or powered by electricity, and able to produce excellent things in skilled hands.
Then off to the car via a stall I had spotted selling homemade plum and X fruit leather. At the car I turned the raw materials that Katy had packed into cold hot dogs (with ketchup 🙂 ), and then crawled through the traffic to pick up Katy late.
