Baddesley Clinton and Kenilworth

Last week Great Aunty Gill and Bill came to stay with us in Knowle at the B&B down the road. They won a trip to the Olympics through Air New Zealand and squeezed in a visit to see us too which was just great.

We took them to see some amazing old houses and castles just a short drive from Mieke and James house. The first was Baddesley Clinton, a beautiful moated manor house built in the 1500s complete with priest holes where the family would hide persecuted Catholic priests in the 1590s.




 

Noah, Sari and Bella throwing stones into the moat

There were very helpful volunteers who told us the history of this old house. We learnt that the moat (it surrounded the whole house!) was dug in the 13th century to keep out black bears and wild boars that lived in the Forest of Arden.   

The courtyard

Bella and Sari dressing up and playing in one of the priest holes

The priest holes were amazing with so much care taken to hide any evidence of the doors and trap doors to these spaces. The kids enjoyed the idea of the priest holes and they had a space inside the house where they had made a priest hole playground where the kids could play and hide from each other.

We also went to Kenilworth Castle. We were driving through a little village and then we turned a corner and up on the hill ahead was this huge castle ruin made of red sandstone. This castle has an amazing history and it started off in the 1120s around a powerful Norman tower called 'The Keep'.

Kenilworth Castle

The castle was significantly enlarged by King John at the beginning of the 13th century and instead of adding a moat King John dammed the local streams and created a huge lake, called a mere, that surrounded the castle and proved very usefull in keeping out the enemies. John of Gaunt spent lavishly in the late 14th century and renovated the medieval castle into a palace fortress.

The inner court of the castle

Looking down towards the inner court from the castle walls

Windows of what was the Great Hall

Later The Earl of Leicester, who was a special friend of Queen Elizabeth 1, was given the castle by the Queen and he expanded it once again, making it a fashionable Renaissance palace fit for the Queen to come and stay in.

Kenilworth was 'slighted' (which means partly destroyed) in the Civil War in 1649 to prevent it being used as a military stronghold and it sadly became unihabitable and turned into a ruin. We had alot of fun climbing over, up and in the ruins and imagining what it would have been like to live in the castle.

Sari, Noah and Bella in the kitchen in what was the original oven

Rolling on the hills just outside the castle

Aunty SeeSee (Sierra) came and stayed with us too for a night while Nick was staying in the Olympic village. It was so great as the girls had been missing her and we had a nice bbq in the backyard and caught up on all the Olympic goings on.

Caro, Bella, Sierra, Noah, Mieke, Sari, Gill, Bill

Bella woke up today and asked if she could watch some Olympics - she was sad when we told her that the Olympics had finished. They go just long enough that they become part of your daily life; watching some swimming or athletics in the evening and catching up on highlights in the morning .... and then they are over. They would surely lose our interest if they did go on but we do miss them...but it means that Steve is back to stay with us which is great and we have been having a fun time as a family again. He will head off into London tomorrow for the night to meet up with Tim Prendergast and watch him run a 800m, his last race before the Paralympics. Tim races at the Paralympics on the 3rd and 4th September in his main event, the 1500m and then again on the 7th and 8th of September in the 800m.