Medieval Fair

Droitwich Spa are holding a three day medieval and canal fair this weekend, in a little park on the edge of the town centre. I was able to go up for the Saturday, to do some spinning and weaving as part of the living history display put on by Drudion (a 13thC Welsh mercenary group).
What worried me most was the travelling. Last year I went for a little show in the same park - the travel arrangements worked fine until I got back to Hereford (I had left the show early to be sure of getting a bus back from Hereford to Hay). One bus that afternoon broke down, and the driver advised me to wait for the quarter to six bus - the last bus of the day. Which didn't come. After waiting about an hour, I had to get a taxi home, which I couldn't really afford. Stagecoach insisted that the bus had come through, five minutes after I left the bus stop (which I don't believe for a minute), and they therefore declined to pay my taxi fare.
I've been wary of relying on the last bus home ever since.
So this year I had the cash for a taxi with me, just in case. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and the bus got me home.

On the journey out, I discovered that Worcester has a new library. You can't really miss it - an impressive golden building near the river. The railway line goes right by it. It's nice to see that Worcester's powers that be think libraries are important.

It's not a long walk from Droitwich Spa train station to the park - but the Saltway is not exactly a pedestrian-friendly road, and I don't know the town well enough to risk getting lost by going any other way.
We were camping over in the park, along with several canal boats and a few caravans - and a real ale tent where the Rambling Jacks were playing folk music on the first night.
There were no Indian grannies this year, remembering grinding flour in their childhood villages, but three young boys worked together all morning grinding flour on the group's quernstone, and eventually had enough to make flat breads that were cooked on the fire. (I can't vouch for how edible they were!). We were cooking lamb over the fire as well, to munch during the day (and that was delicious!). One little girl asked what we were cooking. "Lamb," I said.
"What's that?" she said.
"Well, you know the cute little lambs that skip around the fields?" I asked. She nodded. "We ate one."
"Euurgh!" she cried, and ran away!
(Yes, I know that was a bit naughty of me!)
Because the show was organised by the local Canal Trust, there were a lot of canal groups along. One tent was publicising the Canal and River Trust. It's a fairly new charity, set up when British Waterways stopped having responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of canals and rivers last year. It was a cost-cutting move by the government - so now there is no statutory body with responsibility for our rivers and canals, and any work that is done has been thrown into the lap of volunteers who care enough about their stretch of waterway.