2010 Blog and News

Chepstow-First event of 2010

Okey Dokey-best get this show on the road then, suddenly the first event is only 2 weeks away and it seems like only yesterday (or maybe last week) that I was shovelling snow just to get to the local shop for bread and milk etc!
So- a big prayer to the weather Gods that it suddenly turns nice for the Easter weekend.
We had a meeting yesterday and lots of details were sorted out (mainly the important stuff like what are we going to eat and who's cooking it!) We plan to do a span of time between the late 15th century and up to the English Civil War, so if you can get along to see us there will hopefully be something in the way of living history or military that will be of interest to you. Have a go archery, demonstrations of longbows, Mongol bows and crossbows, plus black powder from the muskets and cannon, lots of edged weapons if that's your thing - all of that might lead to a very interesting confrontation at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon whilst catching your interest along the way!

Chepstow is a loveley castle to visit anyway, steeped in history from the very earliest Norman times and still involved in warfae and strife during the ECW years, the history is almost tangible if you just take a quiet moment to reflect within the mighty walls. Hope to see you there then, Easter Sunday and Monday-and if you know any weather gods, can you put in a word for us all please.

Thank you to thise who interceded with the weather gods-it worked! we had a good time in reasonable weather for early Spring and didn't get wet.

The event went well and really shook out the cobwebs from last year and we were lucky to have along a Roman Soldier from the XXth Legion and an ancient Brit to boot! Happily for us, this individual is going to join us and that now means that we can cover from Late Roman to English Civil War times as one experience for the visitors. So whatever period grabs you in that range there should be some living history and/or military kit and paraphernalia to hold your attention. Check out the events list for the ones that we organise and run and your correspondent will try to make sure that sort of info is available.

The Trebuchet is under construction and also plans are afoot for a second cannon, so artilllery (a term first applied to archery would you believe, after 'artiller' a person who was involved in bow making) may well feature more as time goes on.

Thanks to everyone who came along -there were certainly lots of you-and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.I hope to post some pictures as soon as I can get hold of some.

Margam Park

Well this really is turning in to a big event-there must have been literally hundreds of re-enactors portraying pretty well the whole range of human history and endeavour from Roman Britain forwards. If you are into re-enactment then this is a feast. Unfortunately once again only a handful of us went -5 in all- so it was difficult to show what we can do, but we were well placed between the Sons of the Dragon and the Freemen of Gwent and welcomed as always by them. Saw some old friends, did a bit of recruiting (fingers crossed) and got invited to some more events.
The first day the weather was cold and blowy, but on the second day the sun came out and we had a really good time and actually had to put sun-screen on. A big contrast when returning home to freezing wind and rain plus hailstones! Autumn coming early this year then!Summer didn't last long.

Just a couple of Pix taken whilst your correspondent was a guest of The Sons of the Dragon and some from our Chepstow event.The crossbow theat Roger is holding in one of the pictures is a truly feasome thing and he used it with great power and accuracy-scary.

Some Pictures from Chepstow 2 - courtesy of The Mistress Kathy

Tewkesbury

A brilliant event as always, the weather was good, although a bit hot and humid for wearing padded armour and helmet etc. But much better than rain. I didn't see anybody else from the Companions there over the two days but did see Fiona who is (hopefuly)joining and going to be in charge of music, and her family, Andy and Kathy who were there with the Poor Knights of St Dysmus and friends from the Sons of the Dragon and other long time friends and acquaintances. Much talk took place with these of plans for the future and of events and invitations. This was good, and a pleasure too.
Battles were slightly different and better for it, but there were some casualties on the Field and paramedics running about-haven't heard much since but hope everyone was ok. Fantastic Traders' Row in which I spent money on goodies, and like I always say-you really ought to 'do' this event even just once. Really good fun-and Berkeley in two weeks time as a bonus.I didn't take and photo's but type 'Tewkesbury Medieval Fair' into your search engine and there are lots on there.

Berkeley

This was a good event, the weather stayed fine and we enjoyed the battles met friends and had a generally good time. It may not be in the same location next year we learned, as negotiations are on between the Plantagenets and the owners involving money-as always, a problem. Still an event or 'Skirmish' will definitely be taking place next year at the same general time and in the same general area. I'm waiting for some pix of this year's event to post here.
Over the weekend half a dozen members of the group attended and it was nice to be able to be together as a team-Jane had a go at being water carrier for the first time (I think) and came off the field with a strong urge to return carrying a Bow in the future! (it gets you like that) and I left the field with a whopping great bruise from being shot with an arrow-it does hurt a bit, makes you shudder when thinking about the real situation.We met some nice people who are interested in joining us and made some arrangements with them, and a lot of discussion went on regarding the addition of music and (perhaps a bit later ) dancing in our presentation, and it needs Tom and Fiona to get together to make some plans. We hope to trial this at Laugharne later this month.Your interlocutor -can you be an interlocutor with the written word? I think probably not-may well be banging a drum or two by way of accompaniment , no change there then...
So, come to Laugharne if you want to see a complete spread of history from late Roman through to English Civil War, with Archery (have ago and demonstrations) Black powder weapons, from pistol to cannon and the aforementioned music of the period, plus whatever else we can cram in in the way of laughs, battle or interest, and there will be some new members to meet.
More again soon.

Spetchley Park and Laugharne-

Well, Spetchley Park seems to be one of those events (multi Period) that is destined to grow, a bit like Margam.Enjoyable and mainly focused around Napoleonic and English Civil War times but not much in the way of Mediaeval, although the organisers say that will be addressed next year.Meanwhile, if you like cannon and black powder generally, this is a good weekend. Belted down with rain Saturday but we had a lovely Sunday. Other members of the group made it on the Sunday also and that gave us a good presence and a chance to sort out some plans for Laugharne. Speaking of which-that's only a week away now and we are going to field nearly all of our members hopefully plus some guests and others who may be joining our group, hopefully between 15-20 members. We are doing our own version of multi period with Roman/Celt, Mediaeval, ECW as normal so, lots of swordfights, gunpowder and archery (including hava a go) pls all the living history and, for the first time-our music group (really excited about this) who will be getting their own slot in the ring plus contributing the rest of the time and you (or your children) will get the chance to practice some mediaeval dancing if you should come along.Please come and see us, there should be something for pretty well any historical taste, and fun for the kids, plus (still got to work this out yet!) some kind of battle or event at 3pm as usual involving all of the players. So-stop and chat with our very knowledgeable members about your or their particular interest or kit, or just come for the fun and to entertain the children. Any way, it will be a good day out and we'll be there from 10-ish to 5, (officially 11-4) and would love to see you. Fantastic venue too.
See you there.

Laugharne-a lovely place and a nice atmospher to boot. A long way to go for most of us, and because we had to vacate teh site at night there was a lot more work to do in terms of putting everything away under lock and key and, effectively, striking camp each evening and rebuilding it in the morning whilst we spent the night on local camp sites or B&B. A major effort saw nearly all of our members engaged on this event and also the new music group who were really good and certainly brought a flavour and atmosphere to the camp. Lots of pictures were taken and we're in the process of sorting them out now and will post them soon.Altogether a goodm, successful weekend only spoiled by rotten freezing windy weather on the Sunday (with associated rain storms) but it all went loveley on Monday with sun and blue skies. It was certainly hard work though-as those of you in reenactment will know only too well.Camping was a bit of a laugh too, and I found out that when the answers to a pub quiz book start to include 'Basingstoke' and 'Captain Jack Sparrow' with increasing frequency, then it's getting near time to stop as we might be losing our focus a little bit!
More soon, and pictures. Take Care.