A bit more about Kentwell.

I have few things I forgot to mention about Kentwell following my post yesterday that I wanted to add.  As far the costumes are concerned, I had the impression that Tudor costumes were absolutely compulsory and you wouldn't be allowed to take rucksacks and the like in with you.  This definitely is not the case.  As you will have noticed from my last post, we took cameras in and I'm sure they weren't around in Tudor times!  Obviously all of the re-enactors are top to toe authentic Tudor, but the visitors' clothing varied hugely.  There were those, like us, who had obviously made their outfits, some absolutely brilliantly, others looked as though they had been to a fancy dress shop and were dressed as rich Tudor folk, others still might have raided their own dressing up box and put on the closest they could find or a combination of the above with the most appropriate of their own clothes.  Most people had made some sort of effort.  There were, however, some people in their normal clothes, without even a head-covering.  So if your child would not countenance the idea of dressing up, please don't feel that this means you can't go.  Having said that, I really would encourage everybody to try to make an effort, even if it's just the hat or some of the cheats that you are sent with the instructions on how to sew your own costume.  The reason for this is that one of the best things about the experience is the total immersion aspect of it, some of the time you could look around and all you could see fitted in and it really was those in modern dress that jarred somewhat.

Finally, I forgot to say that we saw a man fall off a horse!  He got up immediately and was obviously fine though, and later we asked one of the men who looked after the horses if he was alright and were told that he was fine.  Apparently he should have known better as this particular horse is known for this when separated from one of the other horses if he goes out with him.  The horse throws the rider, then stands still, looking down at the person on the floor, as if to say "What are you doing down there?!"