Living In a Castle For A Day

 We had a full day to just be in the moment. We could walk to the town of Thornbury but we chose to stay put and enjoy the castle.

After breakfast we asked to staff to set up the croquet for us. They put the croquet set out letting us set it up as we wished. We played croquet going one direction then returning the opposite direction, free for all, going one direction and hitting a flag to win, resetting the hoops another way.

At one point we heard a bagpipe player close by and went to see what it was all about. It turned out that there was a church next door to the castle that we had not even noticed and a person was playing the bagpipes in the church cemetery. There was a funeral going on in the church and the bagpipes play many times at the funerals.

The Bagpipe player is barely visible

After a few more rounds of croquet we finally were done, only after about 3 hours of playing. I was able to go back to the cemetery and shoot photos of the old graves. I found a couple from the 1700’s. There were plenty of grave stones that were inaccessible due to weeds.

I’d also had learned that there was a door in the wall between the castle and the church which was made for Henry VIII so that he could discretely access the church from the castle. I found the door in the wall but could not get so close due to foliage.

In the afternoon we had high tea with sandwiches and cakes. We thought that since our tea was late afternoon that we would not need a formal dinner. There was so much food that we took leftovers to eat later that evening; scones with butter and jam, cakes, and some sandwiches.

High tea in the library with Bloody Mary looking on. George is in the suit of armor

After tea wandered about the castle gardens. We had champagne brought to us and sipped it while sitting in the rose garden. We took books out so enjoyed reading, drinking our champagne and the gardens. While we were sitting in the garden, an employee came out and picked edible flowers for drinks and various foods. He gave us flowers to taste while he explained how he would use then. Unfortunately, I did not write down the names of the flowers so I can’t plant those at home, although, I suppose that I could do some research easy enough.

As it got dark, we went back to our room and just enjoyed being in the room. We had a bottle of wine that we’d brought along so had that with our leftover tea food. This was an amazing experience.