Apple Day Celebration

Live music, cake, cider and lots of apples, what else do you need to enjoy a Sunday? Apple Day Celebration was as successful as we expected. Guests, volunteers and staff enjoyed the activities and the sunny Walled Garden was full of stalls with lots of unique products.

A wide selection of apples from Fulham Palace garden were displayed and ready to be taken home. Some of these apples became cider a few months ago and delicious dry and sweet cider bottles were available to try and buy. A display full of bees producing honey catched the attention of more than one kid trying to find the queen. And of course, tasty Fulham Palace honey, jam and chutney jars flied very quickly off the shelves. Everybody enjoy an amazing bodging demonstration and you had the option to purchase hand-made spoons and tools.

The music from the band Threepenny bit accompanied us through the afternoon making the environment even more festive. Little ones and also grown-ups could enjoyed fascinating storytelling sessions. 

The baking competition made the afternoon even sweeter and the apple cakes were absolutely delicious. Congratulations to all the bakers!

The event was supported by Whole Foods they brought some healthy and organic products and snacks to sell on their stall.

Thank you very much to all the volunteers and staff who helped making Apple Day such a success.

Marlen Armendariz

Volunteer Communication Assistant

Medicine and the Bishop in Medieval England

I enjoyed last Thursday evening's talk by Dr Katherine Harvey, as did my guest, who has just started her Diploma Course in the History of Medicine with the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in Blackfriars. We both found the beautifully-illustrated talk most informative.

Katherine has a PhD from King's College London, and since last year, has been a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at Birkbeck College. Her project is Medicine and the Bishop in Medieval England, c.1100-c.1400, and when speaking to us at Fulham Palace (a home of the Bishop of London for at least 800 years) she aptly focused on the Bishop as patient. I was expecting to hear that there were tensions between medical and Christian religious understandings of health and well-being in late medieval England. But, instead we learnt that the Bishop embraced medical ideas based on the ancient Greek system of the four humours, originally devised by Hippocrates and Galen. A patient's four humours had to be kept in balance. Accordingly, Bishop readily employed the 'art' of the Barber Surgeons to be bled at the right season and time of, for example, the lunar cycle.

Medieval medicine was as much about prevention as cure, and it was thought that an individual's health was greatly influenced by six 'non-natural' factors, which included air, travel and emotions. Bishops were aware of the dangers of travel, which would be required of them as members of the educated elite who were often also Lord Chancellors or Ambassadors of State. The stress of being a Bishop would need to be reduced by a relaxing regimen...

Life in the Middle Ages - at least for senior cleric - was not as unhygienic as we might have imagined! However, we also learn that some Bishops feared being poisoned, and we saw a picture of an exquisite table ornament used by Bishop Robert de Sigillo to counter this danger. It was a so-called 'serpents' tongue tree', in fact made of polished sharks' teeth. This intrigued me and other Fulham Palace Guides, who well know that the ornamental did not prevent Bishop de Sigillo being arrested in 1141 at Fulham Palace, and held for ransom!

Thanks are due to Dr Harvey for a fascinating talk.

Jane Bowden-Dan

Volunteer Museum Steward and Historical Tour Guide

Next talk will be today Wednesday, 23 September at 7pm. The Great Encourager: Bishop Compton and his Garden at Fulham Palace. Click here to book.

Historical Tours

Do you know which plant Bishop Compton imported from Virginia and where it was grown for the first time in Europe? Have you heard how the Victorian chapel was bombed during  World War II? And what about the Neolithic, Iron Age and Roman settlers that archaeologists have found evidence of at Fulham Palace?

These are just some of the amazing insights you will receive as part of the Historical Tours at Fulham Palace, delivered by excellent volunteer guides. History tours generally start at 2pm in the Museum and (lucky for you) are free for volunteers, isn't that great?

In under an hour and a half you will learn loads about the cultural and historical importance of the Palace and find out all its secrets. What better way to enrich your experience as part of the volunteer team? Enthusiastic and well-prepared guides will share all the information with you in an enjoyable and relaxing way.

Each tour is individual to your guide, but the tour I attended began with us examining the model of the Palace displayed in the Museum, then discovering the Tudor brick pattern on the walls in the West Courtyard. Walking around the building we were able to travel through five centuries of history and architecture, while inside the oldest part of the building, the Great Hall, we were shown some pictures of the timber roof from about 1495. I was able to lose myself in the different rooms and corridors and enjoy the interiors imagining how bishops, their families and guests would have lived in this hidden palace. The last stop, before going back to the Museum, we visited the Victorian chapel restored in 1950 after being bombing during World War II.

I highly recommend these historical tours to familiarise yourself with the Palace and its history to support your volunteer experience. You can find upcoming dates in the "What's on" booklet.

By the way, magnolia was one of the species Bishop Compton imported from the other side of the Atlantic, grown here at the Palace.

Marlen Armendariz

Volunteer Communication Assistant

Art Marquee

Every Wednesday in August children have an opportunity to join the Art Marquee to create crafts from several historic periods and find out a little bit about how they used to live in that time. Today it was the Tudor's turn and their marvellous ruffs, you can see some pictures below. Next Wednesday kids will create a really special craft from the Roman age.

Elowyn Stevenson ran the session last week and tells us below about what they made and how the little ones got involved with the Viking world.

'On August 12th, the Art Marquee drew a steady of eager families to make Viking brooches. We used a simple but effective technique of covering cardboard circles with yarn and pressing down foil on top to make a pattern. Then, stringing colourful pieces of drinking straws between the two brooches to simulate the beads that Vikings wore.

The children learned how Vikings wore similar brooches to keep their clothes from falling down (they rarely used buttons!) and that the Vikings overwintered in Fulham in AD 879-880, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

We had 31 children and all sorts of brooch designs, including a "pretzel". Many of the kids had heard of the Vikings or had studied them at school, but most knew about them from reading books, which is always nice to hear!

It was great to have so many keen crafters and everyone went home with a piece of art and hopefully a mini local history lesson, too.'

Volunteer Garden Party

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Volunteer Garden Party on Tuesday July 21. It was great to have such a good turn out and generous donations of treats to share.

Congratulations to any volunteers who received a 'Long Service Award' from Tim Ingram our Chairman. If you were unable to attend but are expecting an award, you will hopefully receive it in the post in the next few days.

Also if you took any photos at this event that you would like to share with everyone, please do send them across to us and we can add them to our new online gallery from the party, click here to view.

Our next event is the Volunteer Forum, which will be taking place on September 15 6.30-8.30. This is an opportunity for you to have your say, and feedback to both staff and other volunteers any ideas and or concerns you may have. We welcome all your comments and look forward to seeing you there. You can sing up to attend here.

Tombola Prizes needed!

Have some unwanted items left over from past Christmases or birthdays taking up space around your house?  Not sure where to donate them?  How about Fulham Palace! 

We are looking for items to give away as part of our tombola activity at the Edwardian Garden Party on 21 June.  This is always an incredibly popular activity at the Garden Party,  and we raise on average about £150 through it during this annual free event.  We are looking for new items in good condition that might appeal to adults or children.  All donations can be dropped off in reception. Thank you!

Introduction to Growing Vegetables Course: Free for Volunteers!

Spring has arrived so time to get out in the garden!

Would you like to learn how to grown your own produce? Not sure where to start? Then book onto this course of monthly workshops which will take you step by step through the process. The experienced garden tutors will help you learn practical techniques on how to grow vegetables with ease. Each workshop will cover every aspect of growing vegetables from seed sowing through to harvesting your produce.

The course is FREE for Fulham Palace Volunteers, and will run from 1:30pm to 4pm in the Walled Garden on the following dates:

• Monday, 13 April – Seed Sowing
• Monday, 11 May – Bed preparation and planting out
• Monday, 15 June – Tour of the Fulham Palace Meadows Allotments
• Monday, 13 July – Plant care and harvesting

Booking is essential and spaces are limited, so click here to book.