St John's Junior, Highbridge

A long week of being Henry came to a close this Friday with a return visit to St John's Junior School in Highbridge. Now this area of Somerset has been known in the past to have been slighted by some people. Admittedly, Bridgwater and it's near neighbour Highbridge are not the most aesthetically pleasing of towns you could name. Bridgwater looks like Dagenham with a Wurzel's accent and Highbridge...well, I like to refer to it as the Latin Quarter of Bridgwater.

St John's is a lovely school, very friendly and welcoming and with lovely children. After the previous days show at Wedmore with over 160 children appearing, at St John's we were down to just about 40 which involved less shouting! The morning was good fun and I was delighted to have repeated to me one of my favourite children's answers to my questions. When I asked the group who Henry's second wife was I was informed by a very serious looking young man that she was called "Annie Boyling". Love it.

I nipped out at lunch and bought a sandwich from a local petrol station, and the afternoon seemed to zip past. It ended almost inevitably with ANOTHER victory for the gentlemen in the jousting. They are really making a habit of this!

I stopped off in Crewkerne on the way home to get some shopping. This morning I have awoken to discover I have STILL not been honoured in the Queen's Birthday List. Surely it's only a matter of time? Perhaps I should start a campaign! For services to the British Tights Industry?

Tonight I am down at Abbotsbury appearing at their lovely Medieval Tythe Barn as part of their gloriously titled Midsummer Medieval Merriement! Fun. Monday I am back at Birchfield Junior in Yeovil.

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.