History Hunters

History Hunters will be appearing in every issue of Heritage in Wales. We’ll help you enjoy Welsh history! You can cut out and keep the pages if you like!

Hi! I’m Wil and this is Cate. We go on lots of adventures together. She’s the sensible one and knows everything about anything! Wil’s always getting into scrapes, so it’s just as well that I’m here to get him out of trouble!

This is Gelert. He loves digging up the past!

Come and join us on our quest to rediscover history!

It’s Christmas Eve at Wil’s House

Right you two...you wanted to try a proper medieval Christmas feast this year Here you go. Gelert, some turkey for you and me. And for Cate and Wil...oh sorry nothing, because in medieval times turkey hadn’t been brought over from the Americas

You can have some sage and onion stuffing though! I’ll have some roast potatoes with mine, but sorry you two, potatoes didn’t get here from the Americas until 1589.

WHAT???

BONES? JUST YOU WAIT THERE YOUNG MAN… there’s no chocolate for your medieval feast because…

Great! I’m looking forward to some traditional food YUMYUMBones?

What?

I’m sitting next to Mum...

Here you go, cabbage, peas and carrots, plus a Yorkshire pudding to eat it off. Traditional British

food!

I’m sure they ate goose and peacock and fish and deer in the olden days? They only had turkey when I went shopping…

Groan!!!

I’m going to get some chocolate off the tree… RUMBLERUMBLE

There’s always been bones though! Best Christmas, ever!

...it hadn’t come from the Americas by then…. Worst Christmas, ever…

Christmas crafts!

Victorian Christmas trees weren’t decorated with fairy lights and tinsel. Back then, people used candles, ribbons and orange pomanders. Why not have a go at making your own traditional Christmas tree decoration?

You will need: One orange Cloves Red or green ribbon Cinnamon stick Dried orange slice Scissors Cocktail stick (optional)

Step 4

Make another hole at the top of the orange slice, thread the ribbon through and hang it from your orange. Step 5

Hang your pomander from a Christmas tree, door or fireplace and enjoy the festive fragrance.

Step 1

Criss-cross the ribbon around your orange and tie a knot, leaving enough ribbon to make a loop ready to hang. Step 2

Use a cocktail stick or pencil to make holes in your orange, then push in the cloves until your orange is covered or your chosen pattern is complete. Step 3

Make two holes in the centre of the dried orange slice, side by side. Thread some ribbon through the holes and around the cinnamon stick. Tie a bow to secure the cinnamon stick to the orange slice.

If you prefer, you could just use orange slices and cinnamon sticks to make decorations — one idea is to string the orange slices together into a garland.

Festive food

Subtleties were special sugar sculptures used as table decorations in medieval times. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes — castles or ships or scenes from fables (stories) — and were often served at the start of a banquet to let guests know that dinner was on its way!

Follow the instructions below to make your own edible models. If you’d rather, shop-bought fondant icing will work just as well. Let your imagination run wild! You could even make a model of one of your favourite Cadw castles!

Ingredients

2.5ml gum tragacanth 5ml strained lemon juice 10ml rose water (available from most supermarkets) 350–450g icing sugar Half an egg white

Gum tragacanth is a natural powdered product that makes fondant stiffer and easier to make into shapes.You can get it from specialist cake decorating shops, or online.

1. In a bowl, soak the gum tragacanth overnight in the lemon juice and rose water. 2. Stir in the lightly beaten egg white, then work the sifted icing sugar into the mixture a little at a time until it forms a paste. 3. Turn the mixture onto a work surface with a sprinkling of icing sugar and knead until completely smooth. 4. Now you are ready to model and shape your sugar paste into anything you want.

Did you know?

Father Christmas was originally known as Saint Nicholas, born in AD 270 in modern-day Turkey. That makes him 1,750 years old!

He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers and children.

Saint Nicholas is famous for dropping three bags of gold coins down a chimney for the daughters of a poor man. Around the world Father Christmas is known by different names — Père Noël in Canada, Babbo Natale in Italy, Święty Mikołaj in Poland, Kris Kringle in America and, of course, Siôn Corn in Wales.

We see Father Christmas today wearing red clothes but, in times past, he was seen wearing white, brown, blue and particularly green — often with a garland of green leaves around his head.

In Holland, Saint Nicholas was known as Sinterklaas, but when Dutch people emigrated to America, he became Santa Claus.

The chocolate bar wasn’t invented until 1847 and in the past, people ate dried or cooked fruit, spices and nuts for something sweet. Try making this simple recipe for Elizabethan Naughty Cake. If you’re on the ‘nice’ list, you could even leave a bit for Father Christmas when he visits! Ingredients 1. Heat the butter and honey in a pan. 85g butter 2. Simmer for 2 minutes, 3 tbs honey 115g mixed dried fruit 3. 4. stirring constantly. Leave to cool. Mix the remaining 55g glacé cherries dry ingredients with 85g mixed nuts, 5. the honey and butter. Spoon into a 7-inchroughly chopped dish. 115g crumbled biscuits 6. Leave to set in a cool 1 tsp mixed spice place.