Plimoth Plantation - New England
Feature by Lizzie Guilfoyle
TIME travel, the stuff of sci-fi movies – or so I thought until, on a recent trip to the US, I visited Plimoth Plantation near the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. There, in an English village I left the 21st century behind and stepped into the 17th century world of the Pilgrim Fathers.
But first, I stopped and talked to young men and women, Native Americans dressed in period costume, about their lives in the Wampanoag Homesite during the same period. I also saw a mishoon (dugout canoe) taking shape and entered a home – not a tepee as you might expect but a traditional wetu made with wood and covered with tree bark.
Inside it was surprisingly spacious yet soft furs, woven bulrush mats and flickering firelight gave it a homely feel. At one end, a young man sat and answered visitor’s questions: “What would he have eaten in 1627? What crops would have grown in his garden? Why was the entrance to the wetu so low you almost had to bend double to pass through it? It was the same young man who, an hour or so later, turned up in the dinner queue dressed in contemporary attire and clearly frustrated by this all-too-common scourge of the 21st century.
But I digress…in the Wampanoag Homesite, the young Native Americans are not role players and will happily answer questions from a modern viewpoint. However, this is not so in the English Village, where the costumed men and women you may chance upon have taken on the names, viewpoints and life histories of the people who lived in the colony in 1627, seven years after the arrival of the Mayflower. Accordingly, they stay “in character”, which is not a problem if, as you enter the village, you remember that you are in the year 1627 too.
Of course, no one knows exactly what the original colony looked like so the recreation, which is about one-third its size, is based on ongoing research in a variety of disciplines. And the original colony was further along the coast on the site of the modern town of Plymouth, where now you can visit the Mayflower II, a full-scale reproduction of the type of ship that carried the 102 Pilgrims, their livestock and the ship’s crew to the New World. You’ll be surprised how relatively small it is, particularly when you consider its mammoth undertaking.
In Plymouth, you can also see what’s left of the now protected Plymouth Rock – the actual rock upon which the Pilgrims stepped after they rowed ashore from the Mayflower on December 21, 1620.
Meanwhile, for a bird’s-eye view of the English Village, with its clusters of modest timber framed houses, each with a well stocked raised-bed garden, visit the upper story of the isolated building that served as a fort, court and place of worship, at the southern end of the village – though not before you’ve explored a home or two. Small by today’s standards and minus all mod cons – think electricity and running water – they’re surprisingly well equiped and were, no doubt, a comfortable haven in the harsh New England winters.
Depending on who you meet, you could learn what pottage is or how a duck or bluefish is cooked on the hearth (remember this is 1627, hence the present tense). You might see a garden being planted or cornfields being hoed. You might even learn what life was like aboard the Mayflower – as I did. I came across him sitting on a bench cleaning a rifle but he paused in his task to recall the Atlantic storms – some so fierce that water cascaded into the living quarters. But, he was told, “the time to worry is when the water comes from below, not from above.” We said goodbye and, with his permission, I captured his image with my new-fangled machine – proof that time travel really does exist – if you know where to look.
Plimoth Plantation also has a Crafts Center where you can talk with modern-day artisans who practice 17th century trades with many of the same techniques, materials and types of tools used more than 350 years ago. And last but by no means least, there’s the Nye Barn that introduces visitors to Plimoth Plantation’s rare breeds livestock programme.
Plimoth Plantation is a wonderful place to visit. It brings history alive in a way school books never did and it has an old world charm that stays with you long after your visit is over. So, if you’re travelling through Massachusetts, linger a while in Plymouth – you won’t be disappointed.
To find out more about Plimoth Plantation visit the Official Website