North Town School, Taunton

Good King Hal about to give a Tudor Short Back and Sides to a TA at North Town School last year.

The show today very nearly didn't happen. I went back to Essex for the half term and spent a fine week being trashed at Mario Kart on the Wii by my seven year old son. I got back to Somerset late on the Saturday night. On Sunday I went through my mail and emails, but I had a nagging thought at the back of my mind. The date of the 22nd February sounded familiar. I checked through my emails, but nothing showed itself up, so I searched them by putting on the date in the search engine. Up came a load of emails from Viv Farrow a teacher at North Town School - 22nd Feb had been mooched as a possible date for me to visit the school, but I didn't think it had been confirmed. Now I wasn't sure what to do. Were they expecting me or not? This was late on the Sunday afternoon now - not a chance of getting hold of anyone at the school and no home number with which to contact Viv! Finally I took a look at the North Town School website, where I finally found a calendar of what was on, and there I was confirmed for February 22nd!

I was up bright and early and off to Taunton. The traffic wasn't too bad and I was soon down the back small lane that led to the car park at the school. I had chosen to park my car in a spot where there was a puddle roughly the size and depth of the Pacific Ocean and so consequently I frequently had to splash in and out of it when getting the props in and out of the school hall. As of last time the school was magnificent. It was so nice to finally get to meet Viv Farrow after she was off sick last year. Also, the lovely Kirsty was feeling much better than she did last time around and was even kind enough to nip out and purchase some lunch for me. What a nice lady!

The kids were fun too! Full of laughter and good questions, plus they showed some remarkably good Tudor knowledge. At lunchtime I saw the nice Irish lady from County Donegal seen being beheaded above from last year's show. She was as delightful as ever and even told me how to pronounce the name Gweedore properly - very useful if I ever bump into Clannad or Enya.

The afternoon was fun and loud and culminated in a fantastic jousting tournament which was won by a very able Ladies team. This now makes the score:

GENTLEMEN 11 - 16 LADIES

Back home this evening, then off tomorrow for another return visit this time to the wonderful Blundell's Prep in Tiverton in Devon. Should be a fun one!