The weather for Chris’ birthday didn’t start well as it started raining during breakfast an for the start of the drive to Plymouth but as soon as we arrived at Plimoth Plantation although it was cold it stopped raining and some of the sky actually cleared. This is a recreation of where the people from the Mayflower landed. The first stop was the Wampanoag homesite which is a recreation of Hobbomock a Poknoket man who lived in Patuxet / Plymouth colony in the 1620s. This homestead was across the brook on the south side of the Pilgrims’ fortified town. It is actually manned by people either from the Wampanoag or other native nations. This was actually an interesting way to have the living history museum as they didn’t role play, they were willing to talk about their ancestors and also how they live. They still wear traditional dress and have the skills that have been passed down though the generations. We spoke to one lady who was stripping bark to make the mats and coverings for the walls and it looked like she was using a knife but she was actually just using a twig. They used to spend 3 seasons by the sea and one further inland, the Pilgrim fathers probably chose to build their settlement there as the ground was already cleared but as it was December the local population were not there. We spoke to one of the ladies who was making soup, she said they don’t have fixed meal times just eat when they wanted to so they tended to have something cooking all day. The final stop was in a ‘winter’ house which was covered in bark rather than reads, they carried everything they needed with them and although they did hunt a little mostly they ate what they had prepared during the other months. From there we went to the Fort / Meeting house and village. This is a recreated village brining the Plimoth Colony to life, it is called Plimoth as this is how it was spelt in the majority of documentation from the time as most people if they could read and write did so phonetically. The village is set seven years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, they chose this year because it is well documented and represents a period before they started moving on. They have really researched their roles and have the history and back stories and have even learnt the accents of the time and some of them are very good. We spoke to one lady who was originally from Stepney in London, and when we said that Chris’ family had come from Bethnal Green she asked if we knew St Dustan’s Church! The village was really small and this was before any trades had been established so only houses were represented. When we thought about it we realised that a village to support the first boat full had about one hundred people but five died before they landed and in the first year a further 43 died so as some of the hundred were children we worked out that there were probably only about 10 houses needed. It was quite interesting hearing more about the agreement that they came to America with. They had effectively brought shares in the new world, and to ‘repay’ the loan, or earn the shares they agreed to work the land for seven years, for this time they wouldn’t own the houses they lived in or the land they farmed, however if they were still there after seven years they would be given 100 acres of land for every adult and 50 acres for every child under 16, servants wouldn’t earn any land. We had spent a couple of hours walking round then headed off to Plymouth. Chris had found a walk round historic Plymouth which we followed. Our first stop was the Plymouth Rock which is actually a rock that someone carved 1620 in, they say this was done by the first settlers but who knows! From there we walked round the location of the first settlement and then onto Main Street, most of the houses in the area are actually from the 1800’s but it is a really nice town all the same. We ended up at the site of the first fort / cemetery reading the stones was really interesting as a lot of information was listed on them, we even found a William Barnes – very strange especially as it is Chris’ birthday. I really liked Plymouth, although I am sure in high season it is very different. We had our picnic lunch overlooking the ocean and the town which was great then it was time to drive to Salem, unfortunately this involved driving through Boston again but luckily this time Chris managed to navigate it despite the torrential rain that decided to start just as we hit the most complicated intersection area! We arrived at the hotel about 4.00 and by the time we had checked in, unloaded the car and settled into the room there was just time for a quick drink in the room before going out for Chris’ birthday meal!
