Video: History comes alive at Katharine of Aragon festival
HUNDREDS flocked into Peterborough Cathedral over the weekend for a colourful celebration of Katharine of Aragon’s life.
Visitors would have been forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time at the festival in honour of the former Queen as a range of volunteers dressed in Tudor clothes and took on the roles of people from the time.
Katharine, the first wife of Henry VIII, was buried in the Cathedral in 1536.
Every year on the last weekend of January her memory is celebrated by a range of events at the Katharine of Aragon Festival.
Highlights included candlelit processions, Tudor role play and a Roman Catholic mass inside the Cathedral in memory of the former Catholic monarch.
Dean of Peterborough, the Very Reverend Charles Taylor, said: “The festival has been really successful. It has been one of those times that you see the cathedral at its very best.
“We have worked closely with Peterborough City Council and the leisure services trust Vivacity to put on some good educational stands and the children enjoyed learning more about life in the Tudor times.”
A number of stalls depicting life in the 16th century were set up in the Cathedral for a Tudor Living History day between 10am and 3pm on Saturday.
Experts from the Peterborough Museum talked to people about the collection of tools, cooking equipment and even weaponry. They were dressed as Tudors, with two volunteers taking on the roles of Henry VIII and Katharine herself.
Local historian Stuart Orme, who was one of those manning the stalls, said: “We like to mix between the first and third person when teaching about history.
“That means we will pretend to be people from the time, but then also explain things as a historian as well.”
Stuart also delivered a speech about the gravedigger Old Scarlett, who buried Katharine, before people sampled a new beer named in his honour.
The talk started at 7.30pm and the beer was such a hit that people stayed in the Cathedral drinking it until 10.30pm on Friday night.
To finish the event, Mr Orme took a group on a tour of Peterborough where he talked about how the city would have been during the time of Katharine’s burial.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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