Talking Tudors Listener Spotlight

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background.

My name is Jessica Caldwell. I was raised in West Virginia but currently live in Ohio, USA. I am married to my best friend, Harry. We live in a very rural area in the country. We are surrounded by farms with cows and chickens. We love to travel and have been lucky enough to visit some amazing places like Ireland, England, and Scotland. We love to watch hockey and rugby. We have 2 amazing dogs (Grace, an Irish Wolfhound and Skylar, a black lab mix) and 3 spoiled cats. I am an Intervention Specialist in a local elementary school and am currently teaching 3rd grade. This fall I will start my 24th year of teaching.

What ignited your passion for Tudor history?

I love history. I am fascinated by many different periods in history but I think I’d always heard snippets of information about Henry VIII including the rhyme (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).  I think I got hooked with the show The Tudors. It fascinated me. After watching the series, I had to learn more so I bought lots of books and started researching online.

What’s something you love about where you live?

I live near places called Black Hand Gorge Nature Preserve and Flint Ridge State Memorial. These places were inhabited by the Hopewell Indians many years ago. Near where we live are native mounds/earthworks. I love the history of this area. Flint used by the Native Americans locally has been discovered as far west as Yellowstone in Wyoming. 

I love living in the country but we are lucky enough to have Columbus, OH, Pittsburgh, Pa and Cleveland, OH within a short driving distance for modern convenience and fun.

What are your hobbies?

I have found that I love to plan travel vacations. I have become really good at it. On our last trip to England/Scotland, I had several people ask me if I had a travel agent help plan the trip because it covered so much. Nope, just me. 🙂

I also love reading, cooking and gardening. 

What’s been one of your favourite episodes of ‘Talking Tudors’, and why?

Episode 64 was my favorite because it played songs that Anne Boleyn would have heard too. That just gave me goose bumps. The music was absolutely beautiful and I could just close my eyes and try to picture her listening too.

Share a brief story. It can be inspiring, funny, spooky, heartwarming or historical. Anything you like!

I am standing in front of the same Yeoman Warder for a 3rd time asking another question about a place I am trying to find within the Tower of London. It has been lightly raining on us the entire time. I have your book “Discovering Tudor London” in hand and a map of the Tower which is laying on top of the book but drooping like a wet noodle because it is wet from the rain. This time I am asking where the Beauchamp Tower is located. His exasperated response was that I obviously was not using that map because I’ve asked the same question now three times (not accurate really, they were different questions). He snagged the map out of my hands and started crumbling it up and throwing it in the trash. He actually just wanted to give me a new dry map but made such a production out of it. He pointed me in the right direction and made sure that he pronounced Beauchamp the correct way (Beach-ham) instead of the way I was pronouncing it (Bow-champ)! lol

When do you listen to Talking Tudors?

I listen while walking or riding my bike in the summer. In winter I play them while driving to work or getting ready in the mornings.

Finish this sentence: I’d like to learn more about…

I am planning a trip to Belgium/France in the future. (Covid delayed) I am starting to research WWI/ WWII history for the area and Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution.

Tudor related: I’d love to learn some ghost stories about the Tower of London (we loved it there) and Tudor recipes that I could make.

Tell us about someone you admire.

I’ve been very lucky to have some strong female role models in my life including my mom and grandma. My gram passed years ago and survived utter poverty growing up in Kentucky. My mom is a cancer survivor and literally got hit by a car when she was 70 while walking in a crosswalk and survived with only a broken hip. Mom worked as a construction labourer in a steel mill and did every job they asked of her including running a jackhammer. She’s tough as nails and has been my biggest supporter all of my life.

What’s something you’re looking forward to in the next twelve months?

UGH! Getting out of this house to have fun again and visiting with my family. My mom is in her 80s and my husband works in a local hospital so I am always worried I’m going to catch Covid and infect her with it so I haven’t seen her much since this all began. I miss traveling (we were supposed to go to Hawaii this year and were planning Belgium/France next year and that is all on hold). I miss going out and having a pint of Guinness! I miss concerts and hockey games. I am grateful we are all healthy still but I am looking forward to life becoming normal again.