We travelled to Kenilworth castle in Warwickshire for our next visit. Kenilworth has seen some very important events in its history. None more so than the great royal progress of 1575 when Robert Dudley spent huge sums of money trying to get Elizabeth I to marry him, all to no avail.
English Heritage spent £3million three years ago re-creating the privy garden of that grand progress, just think of how much Dudley spent as he built a new wing of the castle for her too. Henry VIII also has made his mark here. High up on the keep is the remains of one of the first public clocks that date from his time.
Our second visit of the day was to Coughton Court also in Warwickshire, The home of the Throckmorton family for 600 years. A catholic family that somehow survived through the ages as they were implicated in many plots to overthrow the crown. One was even called the Throckmorton plot. The Gunpowder plot can also be traced here indeed every year there is a Gunpowder plot dinner in the grand dining room.
There are two new exhibitions this year, one to the strong women of the family including Bess one time favourite of Elizabeth until she married Sir Walter Raleigh without permission. The other is about Shakespeare and his mysterious marriage to Ann Hathaway
But the real centre piece of the place is the Bishops Cope on display that was actually sewn by Catherine of Aragon and her ladies. It was found here hundreds of years being folded away in an attic here in the 1930’s.
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