Broomstick making at Brockhampton

One of my biggest delights about finally taking blogging seriously is the way this blog has been embraced by my kids, with them both being eager to contribute.

I am especially pleased with the response from Cerys. Nathan has always been our academic one – enjoying researching and writing up his assignments and writing articles for different charities. Cerys has always been our creative one – enjoying making things, crafts & music. Both of them have their own special talents. But Cerys has really taken to writing articles about events and places she has been to so that I can put them on the blog. This has been great as I can see her dictation and English skills improving which will aid her greatly in the future.

Here is her latest:

In my October half-term holidays, I visited Lower Brockhampton Manor house, which is part of the National trust. It was a day out for my mum, my dad and me.

Firstly, we all had a tour around the house, which was very old dating back to the 15^th Century; it was nice to see all the different rooms. There were 6 bedrooms, of a fairly good size. I loved the exposed wooden beams. I wasn’t able to see them in person though unfortunately as they were all upstairs and I could not access them. I did get to see pictures so I can imagine what they’d be like. I did get to see the kitchen which was one of my favourite rooms; there we met a lady who was telling us what they used. She was really nice; we saw the oven they used and all the other appliances that made their lives easier back in those days. In another room I especially liked the paintings as they were very detailed and very carefully made; they too looked as old as the house. The paintings certainly gave me lots of ideas for my future work being an artist myself and I enjoyed going around the beautiful gardens. Also at the manor house, I noticed a number of different plates on display. There were some very fancy plates on a dresser in the kitchen.  There were also some wooden square plates in the great hall.

During our visit, I made a broomstick out of natural objects. We had a big bag of branches, which we had to rip all of the leaves off until only the sticks remained. We then cable tied all of the branches together. We then inserted a longer, sturdier stick in between the branches to form the handle of the broomstick. I was surprised at how my creation turned out but I was also very pleased with myself. I laughed as my dad pushed me to try out my home made broomstick. What a silly daddy he is.

I really enjoyed our visit too Brockhampton manor. It was the first time we had ever been. I would definitely visit again because it was very unusual to see how the broomstick was made.