Tewkesbury is a beautiful town which is singularly fortunate to have so many interesting old buildings. In order to encourage visitors to see the range available, the John Moore Museum worked together with the Abbey and the Town Museum in Barton Street to produce a Tudor trail. Visitors received a question sheet and for every answer the children received a badge. Members of The Guild were in each of the three chosen venues to explain Tudor life through their eyes.  Sal the Apothecary set up her shop in The Merchant's house, a late medieval building near the Abbey and attached to the John Moore museum. She explained the sort of illnesses that would take people to see her and the superstitions that surrounded medicine.

 The Town Museum in Barton Street  houses an eclectic collection of items, including the complete recreation of a 1950's fairground and a room devoted to the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. It also has a lovely Tudor panelled chamber with large oriel window, and here Alys set up as a scrivener and calligrapher. The process of parchment making, quill cutting and ink making were explained and all visitors were able to try their hand at the tudor alphabet using the appropriate equipment.The staff here all dressed in costume for the day as the Museum houses a collection of costumes which is available for hire.

Over in the Abbey shifty Garbag had taken up residence and hawked her relics tor the superstitious. She illustrated a fascinating aspect of late medieval and early tudor life and told the stories and legends behind the relics that were widely believed to hold miraculous powers. Eventually even the priest saw through her and watched by visitors, she was chased out of the Abbey - but not for long, and she was soon back inside and back in business.

This was an imaginative  and interesting use of sites and all the visitors enjoyed the opportunity to talk about how life was for people in different social classes in the sixteenth century. We all thoroughly enjoyed the time at tewkesbury and would like to thank everyone involved for making so very welcome.

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, Christchurch Manor offered children and adults the chance to experience life through the eyes of our Victorian ancestors. Miss Walker, the school teacher, put children through a tough lesson on manners, recitation, diction and handwriting. Rebellious children (usually those aged thirty and above) discovered that the Victorians had one or two tricks available to them: backboards for good deportment, finger stocks for fidgeters and, of course, the threat of the dreaded school cane.

In the lovely old kitchen visitors found the town's ratcatcher and vermin specialist, Noxious Ned. He regaled large audiences with stories from the past and showed off some of the ways in which he dealt with pests. Upstairs in the nursery Miss Eyre supervised the hordes of children who came to see what children played with before the days of mass produced plastic items and learned how they could make things for themselves. Despite the lovely weather outside, both days were very busy and enjoyed by visitors of all ages.