Arrival and Walk to the Village

All went smoothly yesterday, and I'm now here at the castle!

Similarly to last time, I was lucky enough to get a single room. However, it's in a different wing of Bader Hall (the residence, 2 minutes' walk from the castle) and so unlike last time, I won't have any pictures of a gorgeous view out my window to show you. Oh well! Below is a photo of part of my room. "Single" rooms are really just regular doubles but with only one person in them. I heard a rumour last fall that some rooms were bigger than others, and now I know it's definitely true! My current room is deeper than my previous one.

one of my two beds

There were a few orientation activities, but in between we had about 2 hours of free time. I was eating dinner with several people and invited them to come with me on a walk to the village, so that was a fun way to fill the time. Below are some photos from along the 2-mile road to Herstmonceux village and back:

And here's a few shots from around the castle:

If you have a great memory you might recognize
this tree from a few photos last fall.... particularly
a "before" and "after" comparison with autumn leaves
on the tree and then on the ground.

Also, a very Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Dad! :)

Day 1: London

London Victoria station

I made it to London! I’m actually at the castle now, but I want to stick to chronological order so I’m going to begin with my day in London yesterday. The place I stayed didn’t have free wifi, so I wasn't able to post (sorry!). Advance warning: this post is extremely long!

I arrived at Gatwick at 6:30 AM UK time, and had a very full but wonderful day. After clearing security etc, I took the train from the airport to London Victoria train and tube station. Victoria has a “left luggage” service where for a small fee you can store bags, so I left my big suitcase there so that I wasn’t stuck with it all day. From there, it was a tube trip to the Tower of London.

First though, between the tube stop and the Tower, I stumbled upon this great memorial to Britain’s merchant navy during WWI. 

WWI merchant navy memorial

The Tower was my main priority for the day and I wanted to go there first so I could spend as long as I wanted there. It’s a collection of many different buildings, so it took me a while- I stayed from 10am-1:30pm. There were so many interesting things to see: different towers (including the “Bloody Tower” where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned and where the lost Princes in the Tower were thought to be killed by order of Richard III) and several special exhibits. 

Most buildings had dated signs on them. It’s hard to comprehend their extreme age!

Recreated bedroom of King Edward I in the Medieval Palace exhibit

Chapel in the Medieval Palace. This is almost certainly where King Henry VI was killed

There are wonderful costumed guides who perform various roles around the Tower. The guide in the photo below is one of several that I saw dealing with school groups. However, others run tours for the general public. I caught one of the “Restoration and Rebellion” tours, set in the 1660s. 4 costumed actors split the group up into religious factions, and had us walking all around the Tower, spying on each other, catching out some of the actors as double agents, and distracting the guards to engineer the escape of a conspirator. It was quite unusual and so I liked it!

Costumed guide with school group

I also joined one of the hour-long tours led by a Yeoman Warder. The Warders are a real group that used to guard the castle, but now the interpret the site for visitors. Even though their job is entirely peaceful, all the members are required to have served in the Queen’s military forces for at least 22 years. During the tour, I got to see the Chapel Royal where Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, and Katherine Howard (three beheaded Queens of England) are buried. 

Yeoman warder guide. They’re also known as “beefeaters” and no one can really explain why.

The White Tower

There’s a legend that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the tower and the monarchy itself will collapse. Currently there are 8 ravens, whose wings are clipped to prevent the prophecy from coming true. They’re enormous!

Below are some photos of a memorial on Tower Green remembering several people who were executed there, including the three queens mentioned above. 

I also got to see the Crown Jewels! It reminded me a lot of how the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College in Dublin is set up. They’re obviously used to massive crowds, so even once you’re “in” there’s big holding rooms leading up to the real thing, just with some photos and/or text projected onto the wall that give a shallow introduction to the topic. 

Luckily there was no lineup today; in the photo below, you can infer the amount of people they are prepared to deal with!

No photos allowed inside, unfortunately. There were maces, swords, crowns, robes, gilded plate and baptismal fonts, banquet paraphernalia, and so on. It was definitely impressive, although almost not quite as much as the hype had led me to believe; I have no doubt the artifacts in there are worth millions and/or priceless, though. I guess really what it is, is that I was picturing more actual jewels instead of other types of regalia. I’m still very glad I saw it though! Below are a few pictures from outside the exhibit.

Another exhibit was about the Tower’s function as an armoury:

This armour was made for Henry VIII!

This was made for the boy king Edward VI, Elizabeth I’s younger brother, who died of tuberculosis at 15.

I thought this was a great concept visually, as a way to present the timelines of various offices (eg the Royal Mint) that the Tower has housed.

You can buy almost anything in a Tower of London-themed container! 

After leaving the tower, I walked next door to Tower Bridge. 

Thames water gate

Tower Bridge

With the Tower Bridge Exhbition, I got to go up to the walkways at the top of the bridge (42 metres up!). There are exhibits about the history of London and the bridge all the way along both walkways. 

View from the wallkway

The exhibit also included entrance to the Victorian Engine Rooms, which demonstrate 

how the bridge was raised and lowered by steam and hydraulics

Speaking of raising the bridge, look at the angle of the road here- the centre of the bridge was raised when I visited.

Afterwards, it was a 10-minute walk over to The Monument, which was built in the late 1600s and commemorates the Great Fire of 1666. 

I climbed up all 311 stairs to the viewing balcony, 50 m above street level, to see the great view! 

Tower Bridge from The Monument

St Paul's Cathedral from The Monument

Then a quick tube trip brought me near Foyles, a bookstore I had read about. It was definitely the most comprehensive book store I’ve ever been in. It’s 4 floors high and takes up the length of a city block. Almost the entirety of one floor is dedicated to different subcategories of history, archaeology, and anthropology! It is amazingly thorough in other, very different areas too: there were entire sections for Arabic Literature in Translation and Russian Dictionaries, just to name two. 

Foyles

I had noticed that M&Ms World was right on my walking route between Foyles and my next stop, the National Portrait Gallery. A store entirely devoted to M&Ms sounded too intriguing to pass up, so I stopped in to have a look. It was massive, 4 floors, a rainbow of colour, selling every piece of M&M-themed clothing, knick-knack, and school supply that you can possibly imagine, plus a hundred different types of packaging for the actual candy. 

They even had a “World of M&M’s” section where they sold containers with candy colours corresponding to the flags of different countries. Not just the common big ones- I wonder how many they sell with the colours of the 

United Arab Emirates, for example!

On the bottom floor they have M&M figurines taller than me, in the classic Beatles pose walking across the crosswalk

As I mentioned, my final stop of the day was Trafalgar Square and the bordering National Portrait Gallery. I went to the National Gallery with art history class this fall, but I’d never been to the Portrait Gallery. On Fridays they stay open late and have special events, so I got to see a free concert in one of the gallery rooms, and attended a talk by one of the art curators. Unfortunately, the gallery doesn’t allow any photography. 

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square; the left photo is the National Gallery

National Gallery

The talk was called “Not on the Label” and so it was about quirky facts that you wouldn’t know just from reading the label the gallery had created for the painting. It was in the 19th and 20th century galleries. I wasn't familiar with most of the subjects, so my favourite was the one where I had actually heard of the people depicted: a portrait of the three Bronte sisters, done by their brother Branwell. 

National Portrait Gallery

I was also really impressed by one called “Statesmen of WWI"  because of its sheer size: 13' x 11'. We also saw a clever exhibit called "Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People", who have had backstories created for them for this exhibit by leading British writers. 

Then it was back to various tube transfers back to London Victoria to get my suitcase and then out to near Heathrow where I stayed. A busy but wonderful day! :)

Here’s some a few other random shots from the day:

South African High Commission

New Fourth Plinth Statue: "Powerless Structures, Fig 101", replacing
"Ship in a Bottle"

I know it's hard to read, but I thought the slogan
was funny because it seemed very British:
"We're the official smoothie of the London
2012 Olympic Games. And very chuffed
we are too."

Summer 2012 Archaeology Field School

Herstmonceux Castle, December 2011

Welcome to 'Hanna at Herstmonceux, Part 2'! I leave on June 14th for a five-week Field School in British Archaeology. It will be back at the Bader International Study Centre (run by Queens University in Canada) at Herstmonceux ("Herst-mon-soo") Castle in England.

I'll have one day in London after my flight before I meet up with the other arriving students and get to the castle on June 16. Then I'll be doing a mix of classroom work and digging on the castle grounds until July 19. I'll be receiving 6 credits for the classes I take there (the equivalent of 1 two-term course or 2 single-term courses at UBC). 3 credits are for Roman Archaeology and the other 3 credits are for Medieval Archaeology. 

After school finishes at the castle on July 19, I'll be spending time in Newbury, Bristol, and London before meeting up with my mom in London. We'll be visiting London, Durham, Whitby, Cambridge, Ely, Lincoln, and Winchester before flying home on August 5th. 

Again, you're not all obliged to check this blog- but if you're wondering what I'm up to, this is where to find me! Thanks for the positive feedback about this blog from last time and I look forward to sharing more photos with you.  :)