Henry Matters

After what has seemed like a lifetime of not much activity, all Hell appears to have broken loose in the world of Henry. Things got off to a relatively mild start with a day at the Somerset County Museum at Taunton Castle on the 19th August. This was the first Henry activity for almost exactly a month and I was rusty to say the least. I did three talks on the day, one at 10.30am, one at 12 noon and another at 2pm. During the first talk, I forgot names of people from history, kept forgetting pieces of historical information and generally looking like a fat Tudor half-wit who hadn't done a presentation in over a month. The second and third shows were much, much better and I felt far more confident. They are all so welcoming and friendly at the museum. It is such a lovely place, so interesting and yet, tragically, so few people seem to know about it.

During the following week I had a meeting with Matthew Applegate from Barrington Court again, to see how we could publicise my visit to the house on Sunday the 27th August. Sadly, due to computer error, Matthew missed the deadline for putting an advert in the Western Gazette. After our meeting I vowed to get some publicity for Barrington Court and bombarded local radio stations with the news that Henry was a-coming in. Luckily BBC Radio Somerset Sound bit on the bait and I was summoned to appear on the Simon Parkin show on the Saturday morning. I was due back at the castle again that day, so I could kill two birds with one stone. I parked at the museum and walked round to the radio station. The interview was very good and lasted for about 15 minutes and I managed to get some good plugs in for the County Museum and for Barrington Court. It was then back to the museum for another three talks. All went really well and we had some excellent responses from the audiences.

Sunday was a long day! I got up very early and drove to Ilchester to do a car boot sale as we needed the money and we had far too much rubbish lying around the place. I sold piles and piles of books and CD's at only 50p a go and came home with nearly £40 profit. Not bad. I then had to unload the car of the unsold stuff and reload the car with my Henry stuff. I was then off over to Barrington Court and another Henry walkabout day. It was quite quiet, but the weather was lovely and really in conditions like that, there is no finer place in the whole of the West Country than Barrington Court. We had a lovely time and I was presented with a bucket of tea and the most delicious piece of lemon cake you have ever had as a thank you for my days efforts as the house was closing. I slept well that night.

Bank Holiday Monday, I was back at the county museum inTaunton again for three more talks. We had a much lower turn out for the first two shows than we had on the previous Saturdays, but the 2pm show was quite well attended and we had another fine day with some lovely people. I have to say, I was incredibly tired last night from my Henry work.

Coming up? Leeds Castle again, this coming weekend as I am attending their Balloon Festival on both Saturday and Sunday. And the weekend after that? Leeds Castle again. And two weeks after that? Leeds Castle AGAIN. Funny old world.