Royal Progress day 7

St Mary’s Church Warwick dominates the whole town with it’s square tower at 174 feet high, you can see it on any approach to the town. The church can trace it’s history back to Norman times and the crypt under the high alter hold a number of tombs as well as a medieval ducking stool. There are many tombs here among them is the brother of Katherine Parr on the high alter but in the Beauchamp chapels lies the Dudley brothers. Robert and Ambrose, Robert the court favourite of Elizabeth lies with his second wife Lettice in very grand style and Ambrose also in a style befitting a great land owner in the county. Lord Leyster Hospital endowed by Robert Dudley in 1571 for the retirement of the Queens old soldiers and still in use as such today. Looking at the building it is a wonder that it still stands. It survived the fire in 1698 that destroyed a large part of the town including half of St Mary’s church. The Timber of the hospital has warped over the centuries and the building leans over the pavement. In the tearoom there is a a fraction of a curtain and a needlepoint embroidery of the Bear with the Ragged Staff sewn by Amy Robsart Robert Dudley’s first wife. We spent the rest of the day at Warwick castle, now owned by the Merlin entertainments group, it’s good for kids not for the real study of history. I think it’s very expensive for families, as after you have paid your entrance fee you find that there are other places that charge entry, it must make for some disappointed kids and unhappy parents who have to keep digging into their pockets. The castle does have a few redeeming features, it was the first building in England to be powered by hydro-electricity and the machinery is still there dating back to 1902. The huge trebuchet catapult, a copy of a medieval siege machine fired a fire ball, it was fantastic to see a huge fire ball arcing across the sky and yes it does sound like it does on the movies. We finished the day by visiting a few more pubs around old Kenilworth before having dinner in the Famous Virgins and Castle pub dating from the 1540’s