Saturday and Sunday

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 03:25 AM

Here's quite a few pics from the weekend.
Sat was our Medieval Night as I mentioned in another post.

Here's a few of the girls decoration the hall

And getting the 'tavern' ready

And the forest area

Two pics of how it all looked in candle light

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 03:34 AM

It was compulsory to wear a medieval costume. Nearly everybody made their own .. well the ladies made them for the men as well.

A partial group pic ... you can just see the 'cutoot' in the middle. There were another 15 people not in the pic. They were at the tavern with me drinking Speckled Hen.

A general pic

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 03:38 AM

Here are several pics of some of the various costumes, taken with the Lady of the Hall.

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 03:41 AM

It was a fab night .. now on to Sunday ...

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 03:56 AM

Sunday we had organised a small Christmas Folk Festival at the Carpenters Arms in the Black Mountains. The place was absolutely full by 2pm. We got there about 11am to claim the space and set up. We locked the front entrance up to use as the 'stage'. It was free to come in but we did do a raffle and raised quite a considerable amount for Geraldine's Breast Cancer Support Group.

The girls settling in shortly after we arrived. It was raining and blowing and cold outside, but you can't beat being in the Carpenters with a great pint of Wadworths 6X around the log fire when its like that. I did have a pint on the go but its not in the pic if anyone asks.

The 'cutoot' lurking

12.45 am and it was filling up .. we started at 1.30pm

Some friends of ours came to perform as well. Coleen is from sunny California but now living in Glastonbury with with her husband Dave in the pic..

Then the adventure really started (unknown to us at the time) ....

**Derek** · 11th December 06, 04:16 AM

I had mentioned to Maria and Les that The Skirrid Inn was not that far away. The Skirrid Inn is the oldest pub in Wales dating back to the 11th century. It is also one of the most haunted places in Wales as well. There was a programme on the tele about it many months ago where a group of 'ghost hunters' etc spent two or three nights there. Anyhow, after leaving the Carpenters we headed for the Skirrid.
Again it was blustery, raining hard and dark. A great start to go to such a place ..

Once we went in we were very lucky that the Landlord was serving behind the bar. There were about 8/10 men in there (locals) drinking at the bar. I came by a good homoured bit of retort cause of my Cilt .. I gave some usual replies which they all laughed at. The Landlord then invited us to go and check out the hall where all the hangings used to take place. Whilst the ropes might be new, the actual hanging beam has all the marks etc from all the hangings of days gone by. Upstairs the place was used as a court .. anyone found guilty of a crime was hanged in the hall , then while the body was hanging there everyone went in the other room to drink there ale.
Here we are starting to have a look .. thats the Landlords hand explaining things to us (not a ghost) ..

Then the Landlord gave us a set of keys to go and explore the haunted rooms upstairs on our own ....
Heading up the stairs .. this is the view