Warwick Castle

Yesterday was Warwick Castle whose tagline is “Britain’s Greatest Medieval Experience”. I had visited it nearly twenty years ago when the special events and entertainment was very limited, consisting (from memory) of a couple of “knights” on horses. The owners are the Tussauds Group, who bought the castle in November 1978 from the 36th Earl of Warwick's son, David Greville. It has really changed since I was there last. The medieval experience was had was done in a professional, engaging and enjoyable way. There is a programme of entertainment, each section presented by experts, enthusiasts.

We saw falconry.

We watched jousting and medieval weaponry.

We saw a working trebuchet, the largest in the world (a medieval catapult that hurled 4 tons of rocks at a time at castle walls during sieges. It could also throw other less savoury things – dead animals, burning pitch and dead messengers – over the walls). The whole device was primed by four people walking in the wheels you see at the bottom of the trebuchet, hard work and, because the flickering effect of the light through the slats induced motion-sickness, in the old days this task was carried out by blind people.

We visited the great hall, the dungeon and walked the ramparts.

Robbie and Harry on the ramparts of Warwick Castle.

The highlight though was the bowman who was giving a demonstration of archery and telling us about the War of Roses. He picked Leo to demonstrate armour and bowmanship to the audience. Here are some pictures of Leo strutting his stuff.

We also found that Robbie is a natural archer.