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Strange encounters a Christmas Tale 12/17/2006 8:08:00 AM
You'll never guess who I bumped into yesterday whilst filming some footage of Conisbrough Castle? In the last few weeks, I've been rather preoccupied with work, which has gotten in the way of a number projects I've been wanting to get off the ground since October. Since that has now ceased and I'm back to being a pauper Lol...I have been eager to go and shoot/film some cool stuff to accompany my writing, but I've been thawted by the appalling weather of late. So when I discovered that this weekend was going to be nice, I jumped at the chance to go and film. Yesterday, my first port of call was Conisbrough Castle which is a mere 10 minute drive away...(yes you lucky people, you will be getting a visual tour, along with lots of yummy facts and poems etc...Ivanhoe first). Being the weekend and the time of year, there was little chance that the place would be crawling with people, always an unwanted variable when trying to film historical monuments. ;) To my joy I found I was virtually alone, or so I thought...The conditions were perfect for the time of year, and began shooting with aplomb.
Once I finshed with the exterior shots, I made my way to the visitor centre as they have a fully reconstructed model of the Castle in all it's spectacular glory. Unfortunately my plan to shoot this was scuppered by a gathering of small children whose regard for the past didn't reach past the vast array of sandwhich's, jellies, and other party paraphernalia set before them (bless their noisy little hearts lol). At least I still had time to take advantage of their preoccupation and shoot inside the Castle and Keep before it was stormed by screaming scamps and sandwhich weilding stormtroopers.
So off I went into the dark but magnificent Keep recording as much detail as possible. In what is known as the Lord's Hall, I found a strange but not wholly unexpected sight being so near to Christmas. The medieval replica chair was surmounted either side by two woollen sacks full of presents, (and jokingly though Santa was slacking). I took this to be part of the seasonal decor and although it detracted from the authentic medieval atmoshpere a tad, it didn't stop me from accomplishing my objectives. I reached the top of the Keep and spent sometime taking in and filming the wonderful views.
Every Castle has it's ghosts and Conisbrough is no exception, the 'White Lady' and the 'Black Monk' it's two resident ghosts. On my descent down the narrow stairwell I began to hear strange noises emitting from the Lord's Hall below. I'd seen no assault by the sandwhich weilding hordes and no sign of anyone else, so imagine my surprise when I entered the Hall to be confronted not by a ghost, but none other than Santa himself. This rather surreal scene was so unexpected that my only response was to utter 'So this is where you hide, is it'? to which he replied 'of course' lol...We exchanged pleasantries,and struck up a lengthy conversation, despite not being his usual haunt of the North Pole, he was surprisingly well informed about the castle's history.
Such is the power of this fat bloke in a red suit, and the fact the whole episode was too surreal for me to take on board, I totally forgot to film any of it. I did however record the evidence of his two sack's of presents. So feeling rather pleased with myself on a job well done I left the castle with a pleasing grin etched upon my mug.
Knowing no matter how ferocious the sandwhich weilding hordes attack would be upon the Keep. They would be subdued by the current Lord without too much trouble.
