Today has been another day filled with history, but it has also been filled with colour and amazement, read on to find about our fourth day of The Worcester Festival!
Our day started with a Battle of Worcester Walk. My colleague and friend Liz leads the walks and as I was working I thought I should probably refrain from heckling or throwing things!
Despite the fact that I was born in Worcester and had most of my education in Worcestershire, I never knew about The Battle of Worcester until a few years ago. It’s fascinating that our City played such an important role in English history and it was a real turning point for the Monarchy and Parliament and yet it’s rarely a topic taught in schools in the Country let alone in the County!
The walk is highly recommended if you are interested in the City’s history. I learnt so much about the Battle and the points of significance. My favourite fact was that they kept and looked after the horses in the Cathedral before the battle… the thought of hundreds of horses in such a beautiful building is a little difficult to comprehend, not to mention the mess they must have made!
Another activity that we took part in today was watching the Percy Says… videos. These are 17 short fact file videos about important historic places in Worcester presented by the Worcester Festival Mascot, Percy the Peacock. If you can’t get to the Battle of Worcester Walks I highly recommend these videos as you’ll get a little knowledge about the Battle and a little extra about building such as The Fownes Hotel, The Glovers Needle, The Bishops Palace and Queen Elizabeth House. I’m slowly becoming a font of knowledge about Worcester… although please don’t test me!
We did another digital event today that involved Percy which was The Tales of Percy the Peacock. This 4 part little series is all about Percy’s life before he came to Worcester and became the mascot for the Festival. It’s a really adorable and heart-warming story and I love the picture I created in my mind of his life and all the mischief he caused on Brownsea Island!
Back in the ‘real world’ Percy was out and about saying hello to everyone, he also called into the POD in Crowngate Shopping Centre to see the other event we went to today, Colouring with Jane. Percy was so impressed with the amazing job that Caelan did with colouring in his picture of Percy! Sadly Jason and I had somewhere else to be and so we couldn’t stop long to join in the colouring fun, but hopefully we will be able to colour our own picture of Percy soon!
Our final event for the day, was actually one of my Festival highlights so far. We went to Worcester Snoezelen to see their silent auction.
We were greeted by Rachel, a really wonderful women who is in charge of fundraising and community engagement for the centre. She gave us a full guided tour of this incredible place.
If you don’t already know who Snoezelen are, they are a Charity based in St. John’s which was established in 1993 and they provide a place for people with disabilities and their families to come and have fun! To play and develop and connect with each other they are all about joy and happiness, these are definitely my sort of people! The facilities are amazing with a hydro pool, soft play area, sensory play spaces, music and art rooms they are one of only centres for miles around to offer all of these things in one place and to allow families to experience them together.
I really can’t express how blown away my partner and I were by the amazing work and the wonderful space that they have created for people to experience and that’s all before we looked at the exhibition and silent auction which is the reason we were there!
The exhibition is compiled of work from local artists, members of staff and the visitors to the centre. There is around 40 pieces on display which you can place a secret bid for and the highest offer wins. We bid on 3 stunning pieces, all of a nature theme, one was of bees on a flower, another was a school of fishes in a wave and the final one was of a crescent moon. I really hope we are successful as I love the pieces and I knowing that I am giving money to help support such a wonderful organisation makes it even better.
Today brings our running total to 20 events. I really enjoying meeting all of the people behind the events as well as taking part and learning new things about the City.
