Investigating Henry - a joint DWRG/SAWW event
SAWW/DWRG member, Shawn Doyle was so impressed that he‘s written to Hampton Court‘s CEO to tell him so:
Every person I came across and spoke to was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about the Palace. From the woman who sold me my ticket, to the young girl at the till in the Tiltyard Tea Room, to the half dozen warders I spoke to in the Palace itself, all made a special effort to engage with me and my companions and see to it that we were welcomed and enjoyed our time there.
Lady Lennox:
He singled out
Siobhan for special praise:
She did a brilliant job of making the place come alive and really firing up our imaginations. From her description of the Great Hall in the times of Henry VIII, it was easy to visualise the people and the buzz that must have been there in the room when court was being held. Her being in costume made an enormous difference to the sense of immersion and connection with the past and made it real in a way I’d never experienced before.
After seeing
Henry’s State Apartments a small group went down to the Kitchens to
discover some interesting facts about the Tudor diet and life below
stairs, which wasn’t all that bad if you worked for the King - eight
pints of ale a day! Others headed off to enjoy more of the gardens and
relax in the sunshine. There was lots more history to discover from
later centuries and the Chapel Royal was beautiful. The whole place
contains original paintings from the Royal Collection and there was so
much to see you could be there all day and not run out of things to do.
SAWW member Syd Mepham sums up his visit:
The gardens look wonderful at this time of year with the different coloured tulips so, after sitting in the sun for a while, we went to try out the maze and spent the next half an hour getting lost trying to find the centre! When it was time for the tour, we spent an hour and a half being told tales of Henry’s court by Siobhan who was dressed in the most fantastic costume. She was full of interesting information, so much so that other people kept trying to join our tour.
Siobhan is reticent about her role, claiming that the star of the show is Hampton Court Palace itself, and she is eager to defend her beloved Henry:
Any praise for my costume belongs to Loraine Morris, (DWRG member) who constructed the replica French gown and hood to dress me for the court of Henry VIII, circa 1540. On the tour I tried to offer some alternative ideas about the King because he is usually misunderstood. It’s true that 16th century executions were horribly grisly and that marrying Henry massively increased one’s chances of finding out first-hand. However, his weight gain was mainly caused by illness, though he didn’t have syphilis; far from being a womaniser he was the only King at the time to marry for love and he never threw a chicken leg in his life!
