Situated in the town of Plymouth, about a forty five minutes’ drive from Boston is the ‘Plimoth Plantation’ which we visited whilst we were staying in Boston. The Plantation has created several aspects about what life would have been like during the 16th Century when the Pilgrims first landed on the east coast of America. During our visit we looked at the Wampanoag area followed by the English Village. They have re-created a 17th-Century English Village which shows how the Pilgrims established a small farming and maritime community along the shore of Plymouth Harbour. The ‘villagers’ were costumed role players who portrayed the actual residents of the Plymouth Colony. All had life stories to tell about how they lived and survived in the 1600’s. 

Alongside the Plantation colony is the Wampanoag home site, located on the banks of the Eel River. Similar to the Plimoth Plantation, here the staff are not role players but all native Wampanoag or from other native nations. They were all dressed in historically accurate native clothing, mostly made of deerskin and they spoke from a modern perspective about Wampanoag history and culture. It certainly showed how the 17th-century Wampanoag would have lived and survived in their coastal home environment.

There was a comprehensive visitor’s centre, shop and museum which had a host of artefacts and information about what life would have been like 400 years ago.

Berthed up on the State Pier in Plymouth was the replica of the Mayflower 11 which we looked around, it was incredible to see how so many people could have survived the treacherous journey from the UK, especially in such cramped and basic conditions.