Early morning photo shoot for Western Gazette

Chris Sweet, Crewkerne based writer for the Western Gazette Newspaper, is doing an article about me next week. It is all about the launch in September of the new improved re-enactment company entitled Past Presence Ltd. He was hoping to arrange a photographer from the Wester Gazette to be around last night at the St Bartholomew's School Fete, but most of them had scarpered to the Glastonbury Festival apparently. Anyway, he phoned again yesterday and said he had found someone who could do the photo shoot today (Saturday), but that the photographer would be with me at 9am.

The picture you see with this entry is how I looked at about 8.45am when the front door bell went and the photographer I had completely forgotten about turned up. At the very moment he pressed my front door bell I was about to step into the shower - that's how unready I was. I spoke rather grumpily to the chap on the front step (apologies for that!) and told him to wait in the back garden and I would be with him ASAP. I somehow managed to get showered, shaved and something else beginning with "S" (scrubbed?) in about 10 seconds flat. I then hurriedly threw on the Henry gear and was almost ready for the shoot. Of course the one thing Chris Sweet and I had planned for the shoot was for me to be posing, in Henry gear with two books - one about the Second World War and the other about Ancient Egypt (the two new eras we will be covering when Past Presence Ltd goes "live"). Could I find two books at a seconds notice for this shoot? Luckily I had Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill to hand, that would do for the Second World War, but Egypt? I tore round the house and the only thing to hand was a Terry Deary book. Now as you know, I love Mr Deary about as much as your average Hassidic Jew likes a nice pork chop, but it was the only book to hand. So next week you will see me gurning in my back garden clutching a book by Terry Deary. Don't hold your breaths if you expect to see it happen again.

Coming up this week - a return visit to Finton House School in Wandsworth and a new visit to Hillmead Primary in Bishops Stortford.

St Bartholomew's First School - Summer Fete

My son James attended St Bartholomew's First School in Crewkerne for a while and enjoyed every moment. It is a charming lovely little school. The headteacher there is a lovely man by the name of Michael Collins and he had asked me sometime ago if I would be available to appear at their summer fete. It was a pleasure to appear.

I arrived at about 5.30pm and got changed into my Henry gear. There was so much to do there. There were several stalls with the usual Treasure Hunt games and hook-a-duck, plus a grand prize draw with over 30 separate prizes to be won. There were burger stalls, a coconut shy, two bouncy castles (one enormous the other more child friendly), ice cream vans and there was also the Town Crier for Crewkerne as well as me there. Seeing us both together a couple of small children pointed and shouted "Ooh! Pirates!"

The place was packed out and everyone seemed to have a really good time. The local Atom Car company were there with one of their super sports cars offering a lucky dip for a free ride in the car. Loads of money seemed to be raised and luckily the weather managed to behave itself until almost the very end when a few spots of rain appeared.

A lovely evening.

St Peters-in-Thanet, Broadstairs

Three years ago I went to St Peters-in-Thanet School in Broadstairs, Kent. It was the beginning of March and it snowed in the sort of way that even Scott of the Antarctic would have gone "Blimey - looks a bit chilly". It took me a grand total of nearly nine hours to get home along ice encrusted roads.

Today was completely different. Warm, sunny but with a stiff breeze. It was lovely to be back again. The school is a really groovy shape - like a large doughnut, completely round and with a large hall to the rear. It was about 90 children today and great fun. I made the fatal mistake of predicting that the ladies would walk off with the jousting tournament. That proved to be about as accurate and on the money as my prediction that Croatia woud waltz off with the Euro 2008 crown. DOH!

We had a really good day today, lots of laughs and some wonderful knowledge from the children, even though they finished their topic of the Tudors some months ago. The jousting was of a particularly high quality, but despite what I said it was a very competent Gents team that triumphed.

My journey home was only four hours this time, far quicker than before and with not a hint of ice on any road. When I got home I decided to do some washing only to find that my washing machine has decided to stop working, bless it's little heart. Just what I didn't need at the moment. Launderette here I come it seems.

I must be desperate for entertainment tonight. I've been watching Big Brother. Someone, stop me!

Kingsclere in Berkshire...or is it Hampshire?

Who's a silly King, then? Me! There I was, all primed for a whole weekend in the south east, from Thundersley on Wednesday, Kingsclere in Berks today and then Broadstairs in Kent on Monday. WRONG! Kingsclere is one of those places to throw a spanner in the works for you! I just assumed, as it had a Reading post code, that it would be near Reading! Nonsense! It's almost in Basingstoke and next to the A303 and virtually halfway home to Somerset from Essex where I have been staying. So instead of being in Essex for another night I have come home to sunny Somerset (it's raining actually, but you can't see that where you're sitting, can you?), will have an early night and then ski-daddle off back to Essex tomorrow morning. What a jet set lifestyle!

The school today at Kingsclere was lovely. Really lovely, easy to find, wonderful kids and fun teachers! I even had a lunch brought in for me it seemed! A ham and cheese roll, some savoury bites and even some strawberries were laid on for me. I really can't complain. The morning was great fun and the afternoon, though a tad warm in the costume was still terrific and we had a really good jousting competition which the gents won for the first time in a while.

When I was driving out of the school some of the boys from the day ran alongside my car for the first few yards waving and shouting "Thank you!" - lovely stuff. The drive home of course brought me to Stonehenge and it's the midsummer solstice! So loads of traffic, loads of Police vehicles and lots of hippies in clapped out buses. My, how we laughed.

But I am home now and will be getting my din-dins soon. See you in Broadstairs on Monday morning - bright and early!

Thundersley Junior

Almost exactly one year ago I made my first appearance at Thundersley Junior in Southend-on-Sea in Essex. I remember us having a really good time, so I was looking forward to my return visit today. I was not to be disappointed. My journey down was incredibly easy and I arrived very early, so I parked up with a newspaper and drink to kill some time before everyone else arrived.

I got my usual warm welcome from the staff and was soon set up in the hall for the days fun and games to begin. They were a really nice bunch of children, about 60+ of them, but very sparky and attentive and brilliantly well behaved. The morning just seemed to fly past.

I had a lovely lunch of roast beef sitting next to one of the male teachers who suddenly turned out to be Andy Whittams, a guy I used to go to school with back in the late 70's and early 80's at the Ingatestone Anglo-European School. What a small world! It was nice to see him. He had just returned from visiting another old friend of mine, Adrian Robinson who now lives in Switzerland. The funny thing is we used to call Adrian "Swiss Family" because of his surname!

The afternoon was a great session, very lively and full of laughs, and wouldn't you just know it? The ladies came through and triumphed in the Jousting final! Don't they nearly always?

I have tomorrow off, before heading off to Berkshire in Friday and a Henry visit to the town of Kingsclere.

Ilminster Festival and Much Much More!

I know I haven't blogged in a while but I have mitigating circumstances which involve idiocy and Tesco's Broadband, but any more than that my lips are sealed just in case they sue me.

Let me take you back to last Thursday and a getting up at the crack of dawn day. I was off down to Truro Prep School in Cornwall again for a second visit in two years. It is a longish drive but very much worth it. A total delight this school. Fabulous teachers and brilliant kids, and would you believe absolutely everyone dressed to the nines in their Tudor costumes! We even had a fine Hog Roast on the cricket pitch, just as we had two years ago. The weather was gorgeous all day as well which made the trip that much more pleasant.

Friday found me back on BBC Somerset with the gorgeous Jo Phillips on the "Morning Jo Show" broadcasting "live" from Ilminster in preparation for the Ilminster Festival. It was a really fun show to do and seemed to go very well. Please listen again at www.bbc.co.uk/somerset and click on "listen again" and choose the "Morning Jo Show" and "Friday" button! In the evening I was leading the parade for the medieval pageant for the Ilminster Festival itself. We had, apart from me, a fabulous jester called "Jester Trick", loads of kids dressed as fabulous Tudors, a group of men at arms and ladies in waiting from a re-enactment group based in Ilminster, some Morris Men (and women!), a mummers play group and even some Medieval Musicians from the "Daughters of Elvin" group. The parade was great fun, running from the end of Silver Street down to the Market Square where a large stage had been set up, pausing only at The Dolphin Pub so I could have a pint and watch the Morris Men dance, and then briefly outside Bilby's where I "Knighted" Tris Pinkney! Great fun. On the stage I was MC and had great fun bantering with the audience before introducing in turn the Jester, the Mummers, the Musicians and the Jester again, before we were finished just about 9pm. After getting changed I headed to Barrington Court for Matthew Applegate's surprise farewell party for his assistant Simon who was finishing his years placement at the court. Good fun.

Saturday and Sunday I was at Barrington Court doing walkabouts. Saturday was relatively quiet, about 500 people in, but Sunday was packed as there was a Jazz Band on for a Father's Day special. I guess we had about 1,500 through the door. Wonderful! Lots of lovely people to meet and good fun had by all. The weekend finished with me and Matthew Applegate sinking a pint or two at the Duke of York pub in my beloved Shepton Beauchamp.

Today I have driven up to Essex and over the next few days I will be appearing at Thundersley in Southend, Kingsclere in Berkshire and Broadstairs in Kent. Should be fun. And you never know, Tesco Broadband might lose some idiocy and get me re-connected! Hoorah!

St John's Junior School, Highbridge

Do you like this picture? It was the flyers they were using to advertise my weekend at Sudeley Castle. And what clever chaps they were, taking a picture of me at Leeds Castle and then removing the said Castle and slapping a pic of Sudeley behind me instead.

Back to business - I was on my way to Highbridge near Burnham-on-Sea this morning. St John's Junior School had got wind of my work after my fairly recent visit to West Huntspill Junior. After such a fine day at West Huntspill, what would St John's offer me? Well, it was quite a similar day - tremendous fun! A really excellent school, a charming group of teachers and some fabulous children. We had such a fun day, lots of laughs, lots of learning and a really thrilling jousting tournament in the afternoon. One of the biggest laughs of the day came via a correct, but shocking answer from one little chap. As I usually do, when talking about Ann Boleyn, I ask what possible evidence could any of her detractors have offered when they said she was a witch. I always tell the children it is something physical, referring usually to her extra polydactyl finger on her left hand, or the supposed birth mark she had on her neck. Today when asked what made people think she was a witch, one of the year 4's stuck his hand up and said "she had three nipples!" which, strictly speaking is true, but was not what I was expecting from a 9 year-old. I choked and spluttered a bit and at least two of the teachers nearly fell off their chairs laughing. Now that's not something I hear everyday!

Later this week I am off to Truro in Cornwall and then on Friday I am on BBC Somerset again with Jo Phillips in Ilminster during the day and then I am appearing at the Ilminster Festival in the evening. On Saturday and Sunday I am at Barrington Court for a couple of days of walkabouts.

I have also had some nibbles from a TV company called "Whizz Kid", another enquiry from Channel 5 for a possible appearance on another show and even some talk about yet another TV company doing a children's history series. How nice!

BBC Somerset Panel Yet Again

Familiar ground today! Back to BBC Somerset for another appearance on the sainted Jo Phillips' "Morning Jo Show" news panel. Of course it is school holidays week so after having set out ludicrously early to take on Taunton's notorious bottle neck roads, I just sailed through with no school run to contend with and arrived far too early. I was greeted by Anna today who was taking the lovely Emma Britton's place as Emma was slumming it up at the Royal Bath and West Show in a mud encrusted County Showground in Shepton Mallett. After last night's floods I dread to think what the parking was like up there!

I was joined on the panel today by a lovely lady who runs Hestercombe Gardens near Taunton, and another charming lady who writes children's books and who I was on a panel with only a few months ago. It was very nice to see her again. It was great fun as usual and Jo was, as ever, a hugely professional presenter and also charming, witty, friendly and easy on the eye. Always a good combination as far as I am concerned. We had lots of laughs but Jo reckoned I was going to get her in trouble with the authorities after I described the Daily Mail as being "just to the right wing of Genghis Khan" - which is true! You can listen to the show again for the next seven days by going to the BBC Somerset website (www.bbc.co.uk/somerset) and clicking on the listen again option and clicking on Morning Jo Friday tab.

After the show I headed for home and some letter writing and then lunch. After that I headed over to Barrington Court for a brief meeting with Matthew Applegate about future plans. That all went well and soon I was back home and found that dear old Tiscali had cut my phone off. I had to drive out of Clapton to get a signal on my mobile to phone them and find out why. After much shouting and threats they agreed that I had paid and that they would reconnect me AND send me a letter of apology. I got home and the phone still won't work, so I have taken up the cudgels with Ofcom to see if they can zap Tiscali out of a rut. Be warned, if you are thinking of going to Tiscali as a new telephone customer - DON'T!!!!!!

Meet the Tudors, Sudeley Castle

For the third May Bank Holiday running, I was at Sudeley Castle in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire for more Tudor nonsense. It promised to be bigger and better than in previous years, and in some way it was. I headed off on Saturday morning nice and early, and I was soon hacking up the M5. Winchcombe is a delightful town and Sudeley is a little treasure of a place - the final resting place of Katherine Parr, Henry's final wife.

In previous years it has just been me wandering around as Henry and meeting and greeting people, but this year I had two other friends to saunter about with. One was a delightful Irish lady called Orla Beardwell who dressed up as a wonderful Queen Elizabeth I, the other was a wonderfully insane character called Bob Mason who was dressing up as Will Somers, Henry's jester. Bob's other wonderful claim to fame is that in a previous time of his life he was the near legendary Phantom Flan-Flinger from cult TV series "Tiswas" in the late 70's and early 80's. You can see us pictured here in our first picture at the visitors reception centre. There were other attractions for the weekend, including archery, an executioner (complete with body hanging from a jibbet), singers, and even Davy the Jester, late of Leeds Castle and this blog.

Saturday was a delight, hot weather, lots of visitors, loads of photos taken and generally a fun and happy atmosphere. Sunday and the weather broke and it poured and poured with rain and was generally cold and miserable, but we still had lots of visitors. Bank Holiday Monday came complete with more cold weather and loads of rain and sadly a drop in visitor numbers. However, everyone seemed to have a really good time and the staff and people of Sudeley Castle were as friendly and charming as ever.

For my digs I stayed at Oaklands B&B virtually opposite Blair House where I stayed last year. The hosts there were wonderful and friendly and have nurtured a very happy family atmosphere for the whole place and it really does feel like a home from home. It still smacks a little of it's previous life as an old folks care home (hand rails down every corridor and lots of hand rails in strange places in the toilet!) but they do a breakfast that even defeated me (I asked for a much smaller one on Monday morning) and I can heartily recommend it for a genuinely warm and charming welcome.

It was good to meet so many nationalities and friendly people during all the walkabouts and meet and greets over the weekend, including my first ever tourists from Uruguay! On Saturday poor old Orla got very sunburnt across her shoulders and chest but I am sure this is what kept her mostly warm over the colder Sunday and Monday. Jenny from Sudeley Castle who was looking after all the bookings and events had worked with me before when she used to work at Dean Close Prep in Cheltenham (see this blog passim).

There is talk of a special event at Sudeley next year to mark Henry's 500th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. It would be lovely to be involved, so as I have said before "watch this space".

My drive back was relatively quick and uneventful, and however nice my three days at Sudeley Castle were I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

Martham and Lowestoft

It was a return visit to two schools in East Anglia this week, but only one had kept it's name the same since my previous appearance! For the past two years I had ventured to Martham village and appeared at West Flegg Middle School. But recently Norfolk County Council have decided to do away with the three tiered education system and first, middle and high schools are becoming a thing of the past. West Flegg Middle had now metamorphed into Martham Primary School! It was good to see Judy Colman there again as she is a lovely lady and was as welcoming and friendly as on previous visits. It was a very big group on the Wednesday with something in the region of about 140 children, but they were brilliantly well behaved and we had a great day. With such big groups, even the little carousel activities were well attended and lively! After a fine lunch of pasta it was into the afternoon with added gusto and a rip roaring jousting tournament which the ladies sneaked home on to win! The following day after my visit they were having the official opening ceremony of the new school and they were all desperate to rehearse their show, so as soon as Tudor day finished I was out the hall so that they could begin their preparations. I stayed my two nights in East Anglia down at my parents in Essex, so I had quite a drive down from Martham to Mountnessing.

Thursday saw my fourth annual visit to Lowestoft and the very wonderful Roman Hill Middle School. As I drove up my fuel guage in the car was getting lower and lower, but as I was making such good progress I decided to press on and wait until I was virtually in Lowestoft before stopping to refuel. Great idea in principle, but unfortunately I had left my wallet and all my money on the side in my parent's kitchen in Essex. DOH! So as soon as I arrived at the school and was greeted by the delightful Rebecca Haste I had to fall upon her mercies and ask for a load of £20 so I could actually get back to my parents and my dear wallet! Rebecca is just such a lovely lady, so friendly, helpful and easy to get along with. She makes visiting her school a total pleasure. We had a great day as usual at Roman Hill, lots of laughs, another big group and some fantastic costumes. For once the gents triumphed in the jousting and when all was done and dusted we all posed for some photos for the local paper and I was soon on my way, but as I said only thanks to Rebecca's generosity! I can't wait to come back and visit Roman Hill again.

I stopped back at my parents for dinner and then at about 7.30pm began the long plod back to Somerset, but it was a nice easy drive and I listened to the thrilling climax to the Scottish Premier League with the Celtic and Rangers matches being broadcast on Radio 5. They were exciting matches that kept me on the edge of my seat, which was very lucky as I was so tired after two very early starts and lots of driving. I stopped briefly for petrol on the return and was served by a man who was so icey and bad tempered as to make Sue English seem like a over-prozac'd game show host. Smashing.

Home for a loud welcome from the cat who was so delighted to see me and we ended up cuddled up on the sofa with her purring loudly in my ear. Very nice. I have a day of sort of leisure today and tomorrow I am back up at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire for their grand Tudor weekend. I would hope to see lots of familiar faces back there! That includes you...

Balliol Lower School, Kempston, Bedford

My alarm went off at 0400 hours this morning. What does the O stand for? Oh my God, it's early. It was going to be a long drive today up to Kempston near Bedford for a first visit to Balliol Lower School, a new venue for me. The drive was actually quite pleasant as it was before the full heat of the day had awoken and the roads were fairly clear at this early hour. I shot up the A303 and then the A34, before cutting across country and hedging Milton Keynes and then through Buckingham, which seems a delightful little town.

I arrived just before the school opened and so sat in a side road having some breakfast, much to the amazement of an elderly lady taking her dog for a walk. She obviously thought that I was lurking in her side road up to no good as she came past and had a good look at me about four times! The welcome I got at the school was much warmer, and I was informed in great detail by the lady in the office that she had cancelled the fire drill for that day because of me, but if there was a fire alarm it would be for real.

It was a Year 3 group today of about 50-60 children and they were just fantastic! Lively, inquisitive and ready to laugh. They also had some fine Tudor knowledge to share with me. The morning just seemed to shoot by, which is always a good sign that the day went well. I had a lovely lunch of roast beef from the ladies in the kitchens and then it was into the afternoon with all the nice gory bits! The stocks were hilarious and gruesome in equal measure. The joust was a good one too, with the gentlemen winning for a nice change. Balliol Lower was a delightful school to visit and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. It would be nice to go back and see them again sometime.

The journey home was a bit more fraught with much more traffic on the road, especially lorry drivers hell bent on overtaking other lorries at approximately 0.1 nano-mile-per-hour faster than each other. Why do they do it? They seem to wait until you are zooming up to overtake them and then just signal and blithely pull out, and trundle along for what seems like an eon before either completing the manouevre or, more commonly, giving up and tucking in behind again.

I got back in time to sit and watch Rangers being comprehensively outplayed by Zenit St Petersburg of Russia in the UEFA Cup Final, played at the lovely home ground of Manchester City, the finest team in the world with that name.

Martock Primary

The last time I visited Martock Primary I had just bought my dear old Honda Accord (see this blog about two years ago!) and we had a really good day, so I was really looking forward to this return visit. I was not to be disappointed.

Some years ago I visited a small school in Axminster in Devon and had possibly the worst cup of tea ever served to me in a school, and I mentioned it in passing in this blog. How this has come to haunt me over the years. I had no idea so many people read this blog! So even today, all these years later, as I arrive at Martock Primary and I start to have a cuppa made for me by the Head Master, he comments on how he had better make me a good one as I come down hard on bad cups of tea! I only did it once - and that was nearly three years ago now! So can I just say here and now, while at Martock Primary I had two cups of tea made for me and they were as ambrosia to the Gods and were GORGEOUS!

It was great to see so many familiar faces amongst the teachers this day and they were all as welcoming and friendly as last time. It was a group of about 90 children today, a mixture of years three and four and they were just brilliant. Bright, sparky and very ready to laugh at all my old rubbish! Even though they had only been studying the Tudors since half term they had loads of good knowledge and were very eager to share this with me. The morning seemed to just shoot past and we had plenty of laughs, particularly my "wrestling" during the Field of the Cloth of Gold with Marcus - he knows who I mean. What a star!

After a very filling lunch of meat balls and pasta it was back to Tudor times for more fun with the stocks and the jousting. As usual the ladies waltzed off with the honours in the grand final, but we still had time for a teacher's race which cranked the volume of the crowd up to even greater heights! It was a pleasure to come to this wonderful and charming school and my only complaint is that they won't need me back for a couple of years, so see you in 2010.

I have had a nice relaxing evening and have a weekend at leisure to look forward to. As the weather is promised to be hot and sunny, I might just pop over to Barrington Court for a wander about tomorrow and then hit Ilchester for a car boot sale on Sunday morning. Come and say hello if you see me. If you catch me at the right time I will sell you something!

Somerford Junior, Christchurch

It was a fairly early start for me today as I was heading down to Somerford Junior School in Christchurch, and I well remembered from my previous visits to this town what a bottleneck of a place it is to get through. I left home at about 6.20am and all went swimmingly until about the last 5-10 miles. Gridlock was not far off it. Eventually the journey took me just over 2 hours - and it was only about 55 miles.

The teachers and the rest of the staff at this lovely school were as welcoming and fun as ever and it was great to see them all again. There was much merriment from the ladies on the front reception desk about my t-shirt I was wearing today. It says "Body of a God - shame it's Buddha" which they all thought was wonderful and wanted copies of it for their own other halves. They also reminded me that on my last visit to this school I left my mobile phone there - I made sure I had it close to hand all day today.

It was a year three class today and some of them struggled a bit as they have not been doing the Tudors for very long, but they perked up as the day went on. It was almost over poweringly hot today and I was not exactly dressed for it in all my furs and layers!

After a lovely pasta lunch it was on to the crimes and punishments section, a fun stocks event and then the jousting. One of the ladies teams in the first leg were a little...er...unfortunate(?) and were never really in the running as their lead off lady took nearly 10 minutes to hook all of her quoits! Even when I helped her cheat by loading all bar one of the quoits onto her lance, she managed to knock them all off again within a couple of seconds! However, despite this, the other ladies team marched on through to the final where they comprehensively thrashed the gents champions!

My drive home was equally fraught just getting out of Christchurch! Another two hours before home again. Tomorrow I am much more local, with a return visit for the first time in two years to Martock School in, unsurprisingly, Martock! Should be fun.

Downlands School, Blandford Camp

Some two years ago, for the very first time, I attempted to get to a school using my (then) brand new Sat Nav system in my car. It was a baptism of fire for "Doris" and me! She had a bit of a "bad hair day" and attempted to get me to Downlands School in Blandford Camp, Dorset, via a brick wall enclosed builders yard. Today, for what might well prove to be her swan song, "Doris" (my sat nav) was on board to try and bring me back to Downlands! As I may have mentioned in recent days, "Doris" isn't too well at the moment and is much in need of either repair, or total abandonment. She didn't let me down today though and I arrived bright and early at the security gates at this vast army camp. I was quickly signed in and had a photo pass issued to me (they still had me on record from the previous visit two years back). I managed to even snaffle a car parking spot right outside the front door to the school.

It was great to be back, a really lovely school and some charming teachers, all dressed to the nines in their finest Tudor clothing! The ever helpful caretaker took care of me and helped me lug my Henry stuff into the main hall. The children were all dressed up in some equally fantastic Tudor garb, a lot of it painstakingly home made, but looking wonderful. Despite not having done much on the Tudors in class yet this year the children were eager to show off their knowledge. They had all obviously been reading a lot of books about Henry and his life, though pronunciation of names was proving tricky. One little girl told me that Henry's second wife was called "Annie Boyling". And who knows, perhaps she was!

After lunch we had a smashing session with the crime and punishment talk and a lot of fun with the stocks before we got on to the inevitable loud jousting tournament. The girls won on a "penalty shoot out" today, just managing to snatch victory from the gents on the second re-hooking. Downlands is a fabulous school and my only regret is that as whenever I visit them I do two years at once which means I won't get a chance to see them all again for another two years! So see you in 2010!

My journey home was a little fraught as the Troy Town by-pass was shut because of an accident and "Doris'" batteries were running low - but I made it!

Tomorrow I am off to Chard to lovely old Manor Court School and a meeting with Deputy Head, Lizzie Reynolds.

BBC Somerset Bus

Another week and another appearance on Jo Phillips' "Morning Jo Show" panel on BBC Somerset. There were a couple of differences though. Firstly we weren't in the studio in Taunton but on the BBC Broadcast Bus in Market Street in Crewkerne. And secondly, there was no Emma Britton as she is away on holiday and her place was taken by Liam, the bus driver and he did a very passable impression. I was on the show with a couple of ladies, one from Crewkerne Town Council and another lady from Drimpton just up the road from Clapton. It is quite a snug fit inside the studio on the bus, but it was good fun, especially the chat about cows! You will know what I mean if you listen again on line!

After the show I wandered to the bank and then back to Bilby's for a cup of tea where I bumped into Annette, the lady from the Town Council again and we had a nice chat and she invited me to come to Crewkerne in November and turn on the Christmas lights as Henry! I accepted on the spot! Watch this space...

Tomorrow I am back at Blandford Camp in Dorset and it should be a good 'un!

West Huntspill School

Some years ago I visited a lovely little school at Westbury-sub-Mendip. I obviously made an impression as one of the teachers from that day has recently become the head teacher at West Huntspill School near Bridgwater. She remembered me and phoned last week for a booking. I had this day free in my diary and so she booked me!

West Huntspill is a truly wonderful school - it is currently under special measures following a bad OFSTED some time ago, but they are really putting things right in a big way. The actual facility is very good and the teachers are excellent - full of enthusiasm and a desire to make things better. And the children? Well they were just a delight! So much laughter in one day - it was life affirming and fun in the extreme. They lapped up all the Tudor information and laughed outrageously at even the lamest of my jokes. One young lady laughed so much one of her teeth fell out! Now I have never managed to have that effect on any member of my audience before, but I had probably better not make a habit of it.

After a fun morning and also having had lunch bought for me (which was greatly appreciated) it was back to the crime and punishment section and the stocks! A rip roaring joust capped the day admirably with another good win for a fine gents team who blew the ladies away in the final.

Tomorrow I am off to Crewkerne for another appearance on Jo Phillips "Morning Jo Show" on BBC Somerset. They are broadcasting "Live" from the middle of Crewkerne on the BBC Somserset bus. If you are in Crewkerne for the morning, come and say "Hello".

Blundell's Prep, Tiverton

For the third year running it was back to Blundell's Prep School in downtown Tiverton. My day got off to a less than auspicious start when Doris, my beloved sat nav, decided to have an almost complete breakdown. She would not power up from her lead and would only work off batteries, which sadly have a life span in a sat nav of about half an hour it seems. I stopped and bought some batteries and carried on, but more or less remembered my way to Blundell's from my previous visits.

They are having massive amounts of building work done, but the school is a friendly welcoming place and it was good to see so many familiar faces. I had an early cup of tea and a chat with the Head Master, Nick Folland, who used to play cricket for Somerset. He and I have been dreaming up an idea for a charity cricket match at Barrington Court played in period costumes. He reckons he could get Marcus Trescothick and Andy Caddick to come down and play, plus some other big names. I must chase up Matthew Applegate about this as well.

The day at the school was brilliant fun. We started off in the drama studio, but later were in one of the upstairs classrooms and finally in the afternoon in the dining hall. The children were bedecked in some fantastic costumes and they certainly knew their Tudor history, despite one little girl asking me if Henry VIIIth had a pet panda (?).

The afternoon stocks were great fun and we finished with a really high quality jousting tournament that the boys won for a nice change! I stopped off in Ilminster on the way back and then on to home for a home made chicken korma and a glass of wine!

Next Henry is today at West Huntspill near Burnham-on-Sea.

Enmore Primary

Back in January 2006 I visited Enmore Primary. I had been requested for this return visit and, wrack my brain all I could, I just could not picture the school at all. Not a jot! I could not remember the village, or anything about the place at all. And then I arrived at the car park, and it all flooded back to me! It was then (in 2006) and is now (2008) a fantastic school. I was working with a mixed class of 28 pupils of years four and five. It was also a different form teacher this time around, a charming fairly newly qualified lady by the name of Laura Potter who was bedecked in a most becoming red Tudor dress that she'd had made by dressmakers in Bahrain (where her parents live and where she was brought up)!

The class were fantastic today, all dressed in wonderful Tudor costumes and showing some fabulous knowledge. After my opening talk and a lot of laughs I kept the relatively small group all together for the activities. With the quiz we had two perfect scores from a couple of the ladies and some of the coat of arms designs they came up with were brilliant. Miss Potter suggested that they would make a collage of the designs on the walls of their classroom.

After lunch (which I had to drive virtually into Bridgwater to get from a petrol station! Mmm! Cold sandwiches!) it was back for more Tudor mayhem in the hall. The afternoon really zipped by and we had a cracking jousting tournament culminating in yet another triumph for the ladies. I reassured the disappointed boys team that this sort of thing happens all the time...

Back home I was due to visit my landlord and his partner's place this evening for dinner with them, but unfortunately he wasn't feeling very well and so the meal was postponed. I am back on duty as Henry again on Monday morning at Blundell's Prep School in Tiverton in Devon for a third visit in as many years.

Henry VIIIth - Page Three Stunna!

If you live in the right area of Somerset or Dorset, and are able to get your hands on a copy of the Western Gazette (preferably the Chard and Ilminster copy - hey I am aware that this is getting very precise), then you will discover that in this week's issue I am the Western Gazette's Page Three Stunna for the week!

There is an article and a couple of photos from last weekend's "Right Royal Weekend" at Barrington Court. It is quite a nice photo for once! There is also a very cute pic of some of the little kids who played with the Tudor skittles with me on the Saturday.

Good King Hal should point out that there are other local papers available for purchase... but I'm not in them, so what's the point in buying them? Be honest!

Happy St George's Day!

Happy St George's Day!

Kind regards,

Henry VIIIth