Next stop Williamsburg Virginia

At last a complete North Devon sgrafitto pot! But.... not an original, this was in a store in Colonial Williamsburg and is a reproduction, but it was exciting to see none the less.

Colonial Williamsburg is an interesting place, its very old for America, was settled as a British Colony in the mid 1700's – as their website says “the world’s largest living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia—the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World”

I was intrigued to visit and to see how Americans 'do' Heritage. It felt strange walking around, slightly unreal the first evening as the place was quite empty and it almost felt a bit fake even though there are over 80 original buildings there. The roads are very wide (maybe too wide for the 18^th century?) and there were costumed characters walking around, though not many and they did not seem to be in character, plus evidence of horse and carriage rides on the ground! A lot of the buildings are reproductions as the originals get removed for archeaological activity to take place in their foundations and then are rebuilt on the same site – like the original coffee house that was lived in by an old lady for years. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation excavated the site and then a reproduction was built on the same spot on the original foundations, based on archaeological evidence.

The next day, Tuesday I went back again with Dave to experience more activity. It was interesting noticing details such as bins being disguised as wooden barrels (again something for Bideford to do). What was strange was that there was pottery in stores for sale (a lot of places sold the same things, including pottery jugs, wooden barrels made by on -site coopers, period reproduction clothing, colonial chocolate based on an old recipe and old newspapers).

The pottery was all new and reproduction often coming from China or Spain - in one craft store, there was a North Devon harvest jug on the floor of the shop at the top of the stairwell! It turned out to be a reproduction made jug by Michelle Erickson. Later I went on the search for Michelle and ended up at her shop (closed) in Yorktown, but that's for a later blog. This harvest jug was a copy of a jug with text on it about Barnstaple and was for sale for $799, maybe there's a market for Bideford's potter Harry Juniper's work?

A nice touch was the garden, filled with plants that were orginally grown by the Colonists with seeds and plants for sale.

Colonial Williamsburg is a very busy place for tourism and Americans just love their history and roots, the walking tours and day passes were very popular as it allowed greater access to the inside of buildings and access to people re-creating everyday life. It was a fruitful experience to gain some ideas of how to promote and celebrate heritage.

The Raleigh Tavern unfortunately was closed.