Special Events
On Thursday 12th June, Georgina King and I visited Copped Hall.
On arrival, we were welcomed into a huge room with an open fire, where we put down our bags and waited for the other schools. Meanwhile, we had a good look at the servants' board and decided which job we would've liked best; we didn't want to be any of them! When everyone had arrived, a knowledgeable woman told us about the people in the two paintings, on the table. One showed the landlord and the other someone would would have looked liked Henrietta, his wife.
Soon after the interesting explanations, we were shown round the mansion - we explored the house owner's bedroom, Henrietta's dressing room, the cellar and kitchen. In the kitchen, we tasted: milk jelly, caraway seed cakes, meringues, biscuits and handmade ice-cream. Everyone was allowed to stir the ice-cream and the girls tried on bonnets (an old-fashioned hat worn by the kitchen maid). We were shown the spit, in this case, it was a 'Turn Jack' (a spit turned by servants). Sometimes, a dog would turn the spit for a bit of meat in return. There was also an oven for baking bread and another place for poaching eggs.
As soon as we had finished our refreshments we split up for the first lesson - poetry. For our group this meant venturing down into the dark, eerie cellar, where water dripped from the ceiling. We listed some words and phrases describing the cellar for our poems. Once back in daylight, we changed our notes into poem form. The other group had used Henrietta's dressing room for inspiration for their poems. We then returned to the cellar to hear everyone's poems.
After this exciting lesson, our tummies were rumbling! Luckily it was lunch time.
Enthusiastically, we rejoined our groups for the next lesson: art and drama. The drama group acted out scenes from 'Midsummer Night's Dream', a comic Tudor play. The art group sketched landscapes using H2 pencils.
When we had shared our afternoon's work, we received a colourful certificate. I think we all agreed that it had been an enjoyable and interesting day. It has given me a good idea of what life was like in a Georgian mansion.
By Frida Petersen