June 2008 Newsletter
Upcoming Events
Great Annual Re-Creation of Everyday Tudor Life
Step back in time and spend a day in the 16th Century at this glorious 16th C manor.
Kentwell is known worldwide for its Re-Creations of Tudor Life. The Great Annual Re-Creation is the biggest of the year and lasts for three weeks. Each year a different year in the Tudor period is re-created. This year it is 1588 - the year of the Spanish Armada.
What happens at a Re-Creation
The Re-Creation shows people, rich and poor, dressed as of that time, talking in a form of Tudor English (which anyone can understand), responding to each other as people did then and following the activities which made the Manor function: Gentry at mostly leisure pursuits; others working in one way or another. As well, there may from time to time be interruptions forming relief to the daily grind: perhaps, a Funeral or Handfast; a Wedding Party or a Muster of the Trained Band; or a play from visiting players.
Two Levels
The Re-Creation works on two levels. First, some 400 of Kentwell's Tudors re-create aspects of everyday life on the Manor: cooks cook, bakers bake, brewers brew, smiths forge, potters pot, ladies sew, women spin, weave and dye wool, alchemists perform experiments, musicians make music, etc etc. People not pretending but actually doing these things just as they were done hundreds of years ago.
Secondly, the Re-Creation is set in particular month of a chosen year and the people on the Manor respond to the events of that year as people then may have done. Just as today everyone goes about their life but to a greater or lesser extent all are affected by matters of national concern: the economy, the price of oil etc. In June/July 1588 the threat of invasion was such an event (and, closer to home, was the risk of yet another poor harvest) and this forms the background against which daily life at the Manor unfolds.
The Re-Creation runs for 3 weeks beginning on Sunday 15 June. It is open to the public at weekends only (plus Fri 4th July) from 11am - 5pm. Step back in time to see not only how a great Manor functioned but also how folk responded to the threat of invasion. Some 400 'Tudors' will portray nearly all aspects of daily life the year 1588 and also show their response to the threat of invasion. More information and book tickets
Did You Visit a Re-Creation as a Schoolchild? Over half a million have done so since the first Re-Creation in 1979. This year to mark our 30th anniversary, we shall offer free entry to the Re-Creation to anyone who has visited prior to 2000 as a child in a school party. All you need do is name the school and the year of the visit.
Some thoughts about 1588
The weather about which we all complain (see more below) kept the Spanish Fleet in harbour while England prepared, helped Drake's fire ships and wrecked many Spanish ships as they made the journey round Britain to get home; but very few made it back. But for our weather, we might all now speak Spanish ! The country was greatly threatened but, lacking media coverage, I reckon that people did not feel as threatened as in 1940 but just as threatened they really were.
A strange side effect of the Armada was that Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke, the first English settlement in the New World, went unsupplied during 1588 because all vessels were needed to face the Armada. Probably for want of supplies the settlement failed. How would history have turned out if Roanoke had succeeded and the English had not had to wait another 20 years for Jamestown and a settlement that survived ? Probably events would have unfolded much as they did but they might not have done.
Concerts and Theatre
Kentwell offers three performances for its summer open air entertainment season (click for more information or to book online).
Puccini's Madama Butterfly on Saturday 19th July at 7.45pm
We are enthusiastic fans of Madama Butterfly. It is such an affecting tale but in some way more real and more heart-rending (and more believable) than most opera plot lines (it is said to have been based on an actual event in 19th C Japan) and Puccini's music is ravishing.
Opera Box have brought Opera to Kentwell for the last 8 years, starting with Madama Butterfly, which returns in a wholly new production. We think Opera Box are quite simply the best Open Air Opera Touring Company. Their singing, acting and staging is of a consistently high quality and they always have a high class live orchestra.
This performance will be played on the Cedar Lawn with the House providing a memorable backdrop.
If you think your taste does not run to opera, think again. Opera is not just for toffs or snobs but for everyone. There is no better opera than Madama Butterfly for a first opera; and no better place to start than Open Air at Kentwell.
Enjoy a picnic in the Gardens (or book supper in the Kentwell restaurant). There will be a one hour supper interval. Gates open at 6.30pm.
Gilbert & Sullivans The Yeoman of the Guard on Saturday 2nd August at 7.00pm
Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta join clever and witty lyrics to levely and tuneful music. The plot in Yeoman is about trying to rescue a prisoner condemned to death at the Tower. It has plenty of romance, impersonation and near discovery which border on but never quite becomes farce and the music is some of the best Sullivan wrote.
South Angila Savoy Players are some of the most accomplished amateurs in the region and return to Kentwell for a fourth year. The players are among the very best portrayers of Gilbert & Sullivan. They have won the Waterford International Festival of Light Music a record 5 times, have been regulars winners at the Buxton Opera House Gilbert & Sullivan Festival and with an earlier production of Yeomen won the International Gilbert & Sullican Festival in Philadelphia, USA.
Their playing is distinushed by large choruses, striking costumes, outstanding choral singer and a some really good leading voices. They always produce a lively and enjoyable evening.
Enjoy a picnic in the Gardens or a Kentwell supper in the Undercroft. There will be a one hour supper interval. Gates open at 6.00pm.
Glenn Miller 1940's Night on Friday 1st August
This will be the eighth successive year in which we have hosted a Glenn Miller 1940s Night concert. Why do so many of us never tire of Miller's music ? Obviously, because it is good but more I feel because it evokes in many of us a nostalgia for a past age. Its a curious nostalgia because you do not have to have lived through WWII to share it. Its a nostalgia for a view of the past that's gone (and may never in truth have existed) but in some ways one for which many of us hanker to some extent.
This year we welcome the Nick Ross Orchestra for the first time. What makes a Kentwell Glenn Miller concert so special is not just the setting (which is striking - we set our stage in the Courtyard) but the fact that so many of the audience make the effort to don 1940s clothes.
The Courtyard offers a great space for people to dance. What's more we have demonstrations of Jive or Jitterbug steps by skilled masters of the genre who also offer instruction for those who would like to learn the rudiments (or improve their stepping).
Dance demonstration starts at 7.00pm, the Concert at 8.00pm. Picnic on the Lawns as you enjoy the inimitable Miller sound.
More re Concerts
No Shakespeare, no Last Night of the Proms and no Tribute Bands this year. The weather and the economy are too uncertain, we feel. However, in addition to the above we are hosting the Festinho Festival at the end of August this year. Small boutique Festivals of this sort fit us well. Especially Festinho which is charity driven to help the street children of Brazil.
Ghost Tours & Scaresville
Our Ghost Tours in October have proved very popular over the years but last year we created a wholly new event to provide the scares some claimed the Ghost Tours lacked. The Ghost Tours were never intended to scare but this new event, Scaresville, is designed to do just that. Many of those who came last year have told us it was the best scary event they had experienced anywhere.
Try it for yourselves. Its the chaps who usually can't take it, the women seem to thrive on it. By way of example, there were four girls who screamed hysterically for about 90 minutes almost without stop and could be heard wherever they went. Afterwards, they said it was one of the best experiences they had had. It takes all sorts !
This year Scareville will run nightly from 18 October to 2 November. Tickets will be available soon online. We are expecting this to be very busy and the Halloween weekend itself will most likely sell out very quickly as to maintain the effect we shall to limit numbers.
More General News
The Weather
We English seemed besotted by the weather. We never stop talking about it (its often a first topic of conversation) and religiously watch or read numberless weather forecasts which we believe as if they were articles of faith. Yet forecasts are as often wrong as right (well they are for Kentwell) but that does not stop us ordering our life according to the next forecast we hear.
Rain
As I write, it is raining and has rained steadily, though not heavily, for three days solidly. The Moat is full and even the Pond that leaks (despite every effort to seal it) is full. The Canada geese are back in strength - actually two pairs never went away - to be joined recently by others. Last year's pair have hatched off another 5 goslings which are all thriving, while another pair have just one. Just the weather for geese.
We, like many people, moan about the weather. We want it to rain when we need rain (preferably during the night) to be dry and sunny, warm or cool when those conditions matter on important (for us) days. The rain produces many pluses, Our green and pleasant land is one not to be under valued. This spring produced some wonderful greens. Round us there is a patchwork of fields in green in countless different hues at their brightest and best when the new crops come through and trees and bushes burst into leaf. Best of all are the lime trees in our Avenue. Their green is a lime colour of such delicacy that the tunnel of the Avenue, especially when lit by warm sun, is absolutely stunning. Alas, this delicate colour lasts only a week or two before the leaves darken up and the magic is gone. But for that week or two it is difficult to think of anywhere more perfect. I thank the rain for that but it may be that the two are unconnected. On the other hand last year's late and heavy rain undoubtedly produced the wonderful show of daffodils we enjoyed this year. None of the blind plants which drier Mays produce.
Easter
Easter was early this year. (Few people realise that in 1928 Government passed an Act fixing Easter for the second weekend in April. The Act has not yet come into force because its start depended upon consultation with the the Church - which after 80 years has still not taken place !) This year's early Easter (as early as it could ever be) produced snow, cold and a biting wind,more than anyone could remember for the time of year. Kentwell was snowbound. It looked very pretty but there were few to appreciate it. Our Tudors struggled on with great fortitude while visitors remained snug at home..
What used to be Whit Bank Holiday Weekend
The recent Spring Bank Holiday weekend felt like another Easter. It was cold, very windy and wet. Although, at Kentwell, it was not that cold (but it was windy and we lost all power) and not that wet. Worse the weather forecast were full of doom and gloom and warnings of extreme conditions. While the weather was not that bad it was enough (with the forecast) to keep visitors away. Too such poor holiday weekends in the space of two months has not occurred in the 30 years previously we have been Open to the public.
Last year the same wet weather continued almost without a break well into July and made that year's Great Annual Re-Creation very trying. We can but hope for something more clement this year.
Fuel & Costs
Who has not noticed the rising price of fuel oil ? Like everyone we are feeling the effect in spades. The prolonged colder temperatures which stretched well into May meant we had to keep our heating on longer at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 litres a week. We run a diesel car as it is less polluting than a petrol one, yet diesel fuel has risen far more steeply than petrol. Government attempts to encourage control of carbon emissions seem empty rhetoric when diesel users are penalised so.
Animals
It seems that scarcely a week goes by without either another animal disease scare or (almost as bad) another directive from the Government as to what we keeping animals must or must not do. Last year we suffered restrictions successively from Foot & Mouth disease, Avian Flu (with the outbreaks in Norfolk) and Blue Tongue disease (again with an outbreak locally). The restrictions meant we could not sell livestock nor buy (or swap) rams, boars or bulls.
Last summer with its wet was a bad year for fly strike particularly in our sheep. This causes much extra work to eliminate the fly and flock deaths. Its beginning to look if the weather remains as it is that there might be a repetition this year.
There is now a vaccine against Bue Tongue. Well that is not strictly true. There is a vaccine against one strain of Blue Tongue. We hope it is the strain that reached these shores last year. It is not comforting to hear cientists argue about how many strains there are. Some say about 10; others fewer. The vaccine is expensive to buy and costly to administer. We hope we don't have to do it ten times.
On top of the animal diseases and all the paperwork and restrictions which have followed the infections, we also have the cost of animal feed with which to contend. Feed costs this year have been almost twice those of last year. Partly because the price of wheat soared last year and partly (but to a lesser extent) due to the increased cost of fuel oil. There is little sign of meat prices rising sufficiently to compensate.
Concerts some further thoughts
We have two Opera and our Glenn Miller 1940s Night this year. Madama Butterfly brings us my favourite opera. The tale is believable and very affecting, the music is sublime and in Opera Box we have a company which we know will do it justice. Their Butterfly here a few years back was as good as any I have seen, a quite wonderful evening that we hope will be repeated this year. The Yeomen of the Guard has a complicated plot (well complicated for G&S) and does not resolve with everyone marrying everyone else as usual for G&S. It also has some of Sullivan's best music. The South Anglia Savoy Players are to my mind the very best interpreters of the genre. There have been a few commercial successes with G&S (I can think of Papp's Pirates of Penzance and the Black Mikado and another Mikado) but prfessional productions are usually too stilted, tired and knowing to work well. Good amateur productions are far better. They only play a night or two and give it there all. The SASP are supreme here and its little wonder they have won so many awards internationally. I'm looking forward to this production. This year for Glenn Miller we shall welcome the Nick Ross Orchestra for the first time. I'm one of those who feel overwhelmed by nostalgia whenever I hear a Miller melody. Is it for my war torn childhood or false memory. I don't know but I shall feel a tug at the heart strings as the familiar tunes burst forth.