Our darling Phoebe is in limbo this week. Her nursery school days ended last week and next week she will enter her reception class in the local primary school - the same one that both her parents attended. But this week she is under her grandparents' supervision. On Monday her other grandmother ("Granny") looked after her all day but Shirley ("Grandma") and I have her for the rest of the week as both her parents are working.
Given the wonderful summer Yorkshire has enjoyed this year, today's weather was unusual - grey skies, rain showers and even distant lightning and thunder. We decided to break up the day with a lunchtime trip to a pub in The Hope Valley called "The Old Hall Hotel".
After we had dashed in, Phoebe immediately noticed something in human shape standing in a corner guarding the toilet doors. It was a complete suit of armour - probably from the seventeenth century.
I hugged the figure and tapped the steel breast plate - the cuirass - but Phoebe remained daunted - not entirely convinced that there was not a medieval knight still standing within the steel suit. She had never seen a suit of armour before so this was something quite remarkable - astonishing even!
We settled down to our lunch, looking across the drenched Castleton road to Hope churchyard where dead people lie for decades on end. Halfway through the lunch, Phoebe had a desperate need to see the suit of armour again so I took her but again she could only look in amazement. There was no way she was going to touch that disconcerting metal figure from the past.
With lunch over, she checked out the suit of armour one last time and I promised to find pictures of similar suits online when we got home.
How difficult and burdensome it must have been to don protective armour in the past. Just getting the various parts on must have been a Herculean task and as for heading into battle - probably on a horse - why the weight of the outfit would have been close to unbearable. I will tell you one thing - I am damned glad that I was not a knight of yore, floundering around like a robot as swords clanged impotently upon my outer layer.
I love this post! Maybe you can visit the library this week and find a story about knights to read to her.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the museum today but there were no suits of armour there.
DeleteI was thinking that these knights could do very little damage trying to move with so much armor.
ReplyDeleteBut they definitely could. Remember almost everyone else was on foot and largely lacking any armour at all.
DeleteListen to Marcellous Red. He was there at the time!
DeleteI would think the guys on foot could run like hell while the knight was trying to catch his horse and mount it again.
DeleteWell I have been to demonstrations where mounted police have been present.
DeleteYes, you are certainly right that it would be a difficult thing to wear and fight in a suit of armor. I bet Phoebe will remember that for a long time.
ReplyDeleteNow she is wanting me to roleplay like a man in armour.
DeleteI pity the horse. He was decked out in his own armour, as well as carrying the knight.
ReplyDeleteThe weight must have been tremendous - like carrying Donald Trump.
Deletehehehe
DeleteThat's what knaves were for. No knight was able to suit up on their own, let alone mount their horse, which in turn would have to carry all that weight around. I, too, am glad that I am living here and now, and not back then.
ReplyDeleteI can fully understand Phoebe's fascination and dauntedness (is that a word?). At her age, I would have reacted exactly the same. I vividly remember a a family holiday when we walked along a narrow cobbled street in a historic old town by Lake Constance. Left and right of the entrance to an antiques shop, two mannequins stood dressed in old soldier's uniforms. I nearly didn't dare walk past them, convinced an arm would shoot out to grab me. I was convinced they'd come alive when I wasn't looking, and kept turning back to catch them out until we rounded the next corner and I couldn't see them anymore.
I am glad that this post summoned up a similar experience from your childhood Meike.
DeleteThere is a label missing. What is the central protection item that sits under the faulds?
ReplyDeleteOh you mean "le bouclier de coq"!
DeleteAnd I am glad I was not one of the horses who had to carry that weight into battle as well as the protective armour they placed upon the horses.
ReplyDeleteI have seen a picture of you Elsie and you look nothing like a horse!
DeleteWell done to Phoebe for even wanting to go back to take another look. At her age I would have run for the hills had I been confronted with such a fearsome sight and probably had nightmares for weeks!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to her as she starts on the next chapter in her education - I hope she enjoys school.
Thank you for that kind thought Carol. I will tell her.
DeleteWhenever I see a suit of armor, I often wonder how in hell the knights navigated wearing something like that. Enjoy the week with your granddaughter. You are very lucky to live close by.
ReplyDeleteSuits of armour must have been very sweaty inside. What happened when you needed to defecate?
DeleteBack flaps?
DeleteHe's been waiting centuries for someone to help him take it off so he can have a pee.
ReplyDeleteI opened the helmet to look inside and there was nothing there.
DeleteThe curiosity of youth, may it never end.
ReplyDeleteWell it never ended with you David!
DeleteThe armor protected them but they could barely move it seems.
ReplyDeleteHow could they even raise a sword?
DeleteHow tall do you think the knight who wore the armour was? I am always amazed when I see actual uniforms worn by men even in the American Civil war. Those soldiers were so small. We have certainly gotten bigger (over here at least) in the past hundred years or so.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Phoebe's mind was quite blown.
In general, people of the past were significantly smaller here too. But that suit of armour would have fitted a man of about five feet and nine inches.
DeleteWhat an excitement for Phoebe. She now has a good understanding of what armour is.
ReplyDeleteFrankie, when very young, saw a woman in a burkha and declared her 'a knight.'
Knights of Allah... rather different from Knights Templar.
DeleteI can't recall when I first saw a suit of armour or how I reacted. I suspect I'd probably read about them or seen pictures before I came across a real one.
ReplyDelete