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Happy Christmas & a very happy
New Year!
After
a first class year we have ended on a high with our last event, at our
home, Gainsborough Old Hall, The Manor House! Hundreds of visitors
braved the cold to see twenty-two members and guests as we turned the
clock back to 1473 and a medieval Christmas. Once again, and leading on
from our recent filming for the BBC’s ‘One Show’ with Christopher
Biggins, Mistress Dawson and the kitchen staff laid on another splendid
meal of period food including – pheasant, beef, pork, eggs, boiled
cream, cheryse, pies, haslet and Lincolnshire sausages, plus much more!
One item of the planned menu for The One Show, that, due to pastry
problems, did not make the already groaning table, was ‘Castelets’;
consisting of pastry towers, one at each corner of the castle, pastry
walls with crenulations and a large pastry central keep, all filled with
different fillings from blancmangerie to custard, and this was served as
a subtly to Sir Robert and Lady Sheffield, our guests on the top table.
o
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Members set up a workshop in the Buttery and displayed their very fine
recreations of museum standard replica seals, pens, chains, rings and
even a cheese grater, which was purchased for the kitchen!
All-in-all the day was a
fitting end to what has been a very exciting and fun year for all of our
members. We would like to pass on our thanks to Joan and all of the
staff at The Old Hall for making us so welcome – Merry Christmas to
you!
o
Planning
for 2010 season is going ahead and we are delighted to announce that we
have half a dozen new members who look like staying the course to
becoming fully fledged Retinue members, and this is good news as we have
said good bye to a number of people who have fallen at the first hurdle
– turning up!
We already have a fairly busy
year for 2010 but some of these events need the final signatures and we
still have no event for June, unless you are looking for someone to do
one! We were hoping that Oakham Castle or Boston Guildhall Museum would
be on the phone but nothing so far, and it, as always, first booked,
first confirmed!
The most exciting local events
for us will be at Tattershall Castle and after a break of three years we
are looking forward to going back!
We are also working with the
John Moore Countryside Museum, The Merchants House in Tewkesbury to turn
our small visit to the museum into a much bigger camp site behind the
magnificent Abbey, more news as we finalise things.
Many thanks to you if you have supported us, and we hope you will
continue to do so as we will continue to strive toward making the
Retinue a little larger, even more accurate and authentic but also more
educating and fun!
Merry Christmas and A Happy New
Year to you!
o
o
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