Arundel Castle

One of the places the children wanted to visit this year was Arundel Castle. It only opens between April and the end of October, so I needed to make sure we planned it for during that time. As it was bank holiday weekend, we fancied having a family day out, and I realised that there was a special event on at Arundel Castle. A 14^th/15^th century castle in siege event, which surprisingly, you don't pay anything extra for, which is an added bonus. 

Approaching the castle

We took the train as it seemed simpler than trying to park when we got there, and getting the train was part of the adventure of the day out. The castle is only a short 15 minute walk with children, and you can see it as you approach.

Now the only bit of the day that could have done with some improvement was the entry to the castle. It didn't get off to the best start, but I was very impressed with the manager who quickly sorted it out, and addressed the problem. I think the entrance area is quite unclear and could do with a bit more physical organisation. 

Forgetting this little blip at the beginning of the day, the rest of the day was brilliant, and all the other staff we encountered were lovely, friendly and helpful. The children and I had various questions as we were going round the castle and all the staff were happy to answer them and provide information. Plus the actual organisation of all other areas of the castle were good, and it flowed well.

Collection of swords

First we headed up the hill and came to the special event tents, so we had a wander around. There were lots of people willing to talk and share their knowledge and let the children hold equipment and look at it, bringing it all to life. We saw armour, arrows, cannons, the herbal lotions that would have been used. I loved the smell of wood smoke, it was just lovely.

It just shows that we are always learning too, we had a good chat to the armourer, and found out why the wooden box that the charcoal was in heating to 1000+ degrees doesn't catch fire. There was fire, bellows and the whole thing was made of wood, I couldn't work out why it didn't all just go up in flames!

We watched two battles, managing to get a seat right at the front for the second one. These were very impressive, lots of knights in various armour, and various weapons, rows of archers, cannons going off, and a great commentary, encouraging the crowd. You definitely felt the atmosphere.

Battle is on!

Afterwards we chatted to a lovely man, who let the children look at, and try on his helmet, gauntlet, and buckler. They were very impressed. 

Knight ready for action

While chatting to him, he imparted a lot of his fantastic knowledge, and we all learnt some new facts. We learnt that a few modern day expressions actually come from this period of history. A swash buckler, which often gets used in reference to pirates now days, came from the small shield that are called bucklers, and the swash, is the noise made as sword hits the shield. 

The expression 'a cock up', came from archery when arrows used cock feathers, if the feather wasn't in the right place, then the arrow didn't fly properly, so it was a cock up.

Also in these times, after a battle, the children and women would go round the battle field and kill off the severely injured, by hammering a stake through their eye socket/armpit/groin. Then it was too difficult to drag all the bodies back. So they would cut the dead persons hand off, to keep a count of the death toll. Obviously they needed to transport these back to the camp so were given a bag to carry the hands back in. This was called, have a guess, yes that's right a 'handbag'. Nice ay?! Lovely thought for all ladies and your handbags, you'll never look at one in the same light again.

We had a look around the garden too, which was split into different areas, I loved the veggie area, which had flowers intermingled, good wildlife, hoverfly and bee friendly plants, lots of the varieties we have in our garden too, limanthes(poached egg) and borage to name a couple.. There was also more formal areas, with ponds, and a fab section the children loved, Oberon's palace, where prince Oberon's crown is kept up on a spout of water, a stalagmite fountain.

We also went round the inside of the castle. As you approach the castle entrance to start looking round, it looks truly impressive and looks so big even to an adult, so it must seem even bigger to the children. They did indeed respond with “wow” as we approached it, got up close and saw the magnitude.

Inside we took a trip up the 100+ steps to the keep. There is a sign warning you about how many steps there are. Honestly we didn't find the number of steps a problem, as it's split into sections anyway. It was more that in places the passage was tiny, dark, and with uneven steps, as you would expect in a building of this age. The children were nervous on a couple of occasions, but did great. We took a steady pace and made it to the top. The views were definitely worthwhile.

Fantastic view from the keep

Walking through the other rooms, some were very grand in places, with lots of items to spot and look at. We had brought a guide book, and one of the children spent the tour of the rooms, trying to match up the arms shown in the book with those all round the castle. She also played match up the Duke of Norfolk paintings.

I would highly recommend a visit to Arundel Castle, if you live nearby or are visiting the area. If you have children, I suggest that you try and visit when they have a special event on, I think the children get a lot out of the living history. They have several events on each year, here are the dates for 2011. If you can't make these dates, don't be put off, the castle and gardens are worth a visit in their own right, and there is still plenty to see.