Black Country Living Museum

August 27, 2013 - We visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley (West Midlands of England) with the Chadwicks and the Glotts.  The museum is in the heart of the Black Country (obviously) which makes the claim to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.  It is close to the site where Thomas Dudley first mastered the technique of smelting iron with coal instead of wood charcoal and making iron enough for industrial use.  There are also many mine shafts on site.  So, as you can read...we got an education on this trip.

They have relocated and preserved many buildings from the surrounding boroughs and made a little village with many shops like glass makers/engravers, a sweet shop, a chemist, an ironmongers shop, etc.  There is also a little chapel, an old school house and a hardware store.

In the village, near the chapel, they had some outside toys for the kids.  The boys had fun with each of these.

There are electric trams and trolleybuses that transport people around the property.

One of the areas was watching nails being made, chains being made, etc.  The Black Country is also known for their anchors out of iron.

There was a 1930's fairground located behind the schoolhouse.  It had many rides like the helter skelter.  Charlie and Philip tried out many of them.  I think their favorite was the Cake Walk that they tried out with Daddy.

Our last stop of the day was the canal boat into the Dudley Tunnel.  It was originally built in 1775 and was used to help with the transport of limestone extracted from the mines. "Visitors to the adjacent Black Country Living Museum, which opened in 1978, may take a battery-powered narrowboat trip either through the tunnel or partway through the tunnel and the adjacent mines; and, also, try legging the boat."

Here is Daniel Chadwick "legging" the boat.

Warwick Castle

August 26, 2013 - Our adventures continued with the Chadwicks and the Glotts to Warwick Castle in Warwickshire, England.  It is quite a touristy place and run by an entertainment company rather than a group that would just let you tour it.  So there was much more to do!  However, it was a Bank Holiday so it was packed!  Here's the background of the castle from their website:

"Attacked in 1264, besieged in 1642 and damage by fire in 1871, the Castle has nevertheless survived the ever-changing fortunes of history. Warwick Castle remained under the stewardship of the Earls of Warwick and later the Greville Family as a private home until 1978. The property was then taken over by The Tussauds Group, which later became Merlin Entertainments Group in 2007 and remains under their guardianship today.

The records of a walled-building in Warwick can be traced back to the Saxon fortification which Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, used to defend against the invading Danes. The first castle to appear on the site was a wooden motte and bailey constructed in 1068 at the command of William the Conqueror. Throughout the middle ages, under successive Earls of Warwick, the Castle was gradually rebuilt in stone."

They really play up the Medieval theme...

They had an area to throw plague rats through a hoop.  Charlie had a blast doing this!

Philip just had fun collecting them!  He did take a few shots with the help of Daddy.

We got to watch a Medieval fight by men in armor...

and two brothers...

Daniel took the journey up the tower.  I didn't want to fight two boys on the climb so we decided just Daniel should go.  Here are a few pictures from the top:

And, the finale to the day was seeing the flaming trebuchet!

Here are a few more pictures from the day: