England's Medieval Festival

As you know if you read some of previous blogs and tweets, Lucky loves history so when I came across the England's Medieval Festival on the internet, I had to go! It is a 3 day festival in the middle of East Sussex in a castle called Hertsmonceux Castle. Built in the 15th century, it apparently 'embodies the medieval age.' You can also visit for the day there or stay for 2/3nights. If you are staying overnight, you can camp, stay at a local inn or even reside at the castle! We went just for the day and for me and Lucky (under 5's were free so Mahi had no tickets) it was £25 altogether. It's cheaper when you book in advance and you can go any day! The train was from London Victoria and cost us £35 with return. The nearest station is Polegate and then there's a special shuttle bus (you need to buy tickets) that goes straight to the castle! The train journey took us 1h30 and the bus ride 20mins. However, there's plenty of parking so if you prefer to drive, it's easier!

The castle is situated on a beautiful scenic village! I loved to see all the green around me with just land around me. The castle itself is small with a nice little garden. The castle used to joke the Royal Observatory. 

The festival itself was really good! I think you can fit it it all in a day but if you don't want to rush, then 2 days will be more than enough. We didn't rush but as we forgot to bring cash, we didn't do a lot of activities unfortunately so finished quite early but there was still a lot to do and see for free. 

The atmosphere was great. Traders, who were there for the whole 3 days, actually dressed and lived like in medieval times! It was so eye opening to se Ethan carrying out their day-to-day living medieval style. Laksha now thinks the current century we live in is so uncool! She 'likes the simpler times' 😂 

We first settled on relaxing from our long journey and seeing the knights in training. From jousting to sword fighting, Mahi was in his element. We then saw workshops on how they used to do jewellery, sword fight training, games they used to play, arrow making,  flower crown making, calligraphy, medicines and potions. We also made our own spear and necklace out of wood! We were dancing to the beautiful music ( well I danced to be more precise and embarrassed the kids, it was reported)! 

There's a demonstration of a castle siege both in the morning and in the afternoon. He kids loved to see first hand how sieges happen. We real trebuchers and canons firing and knights fighting, I was really enjoying this too!

And least but not least, we saw a small play but not performed on a stage! Oh no, it was performed in the mud and it got very, very muddy!!! With lots of interactions with the crowd, I think seeing plays on a stage will become boring! There was flying mud too so if you don't want to become dirty sit at the back! But we like to get very involved so we sat right at the front and got splashed of mud! But Lucky  got the muddiest since she hugged one of the performers who was covered in mud! Whatever made her happy! 

We were exhausted by the end of it but loved every moment of it. The kids learned new things while having fun and I had a great time too. Next time, I'll take lots of dosh and pack us a nice picnic and have a bigger blast!