Last weekend on a whim we decided to head over to Bateman's, a beautiful National Trust site just about a half-hour from our home. My husband had seen a tweet that they were having a World War I encampment weekend complete with a mess tent, field ambulance, planes and more.
So without there being any extra cost to go along (just the regular entry or your membership if you have already joined), we headed over there. We could see it would be busy as we headed into an overflow car park but it was all managed well and it only took minutes to park and get settled. There was also no parking cost, which is unusual for NT sites.
We've been to Bateman's before, back in May 2014 I wrote about our fun family day exploring the house of Rudyard Kipling, author of the Jungle Book but this time we didn't even get into the house or to explore the grounds too much as the focus of our visit was the WWI re-enactments. We are intending to head back again though in the near future as there are loads of estate walks that we want to take, the scenery there is just stunning.
The camp was open from 11am - 4pm each day and you could easily spend a few hours there as there were so many ex-soldiers and historians who were delighted to speak to you and help you to understand what life was like back in the early 1900s. There was also a central roped off area for displays and demonstration and the things happening here changed throughout the day.