I have been involved with medieval re-enactment for quite a few years
now (thinking about, it must be close to 12 years!) and I have seen many
changes go through the people that have been involved with it as well. But
something that still remains is the great fun that's to be had by dressing
up in period costume and getting away from it all for a weekend or so.
It takes a certain type of person to do this sort of thing - either
they are complete loonies interested in hitting other loonies with lumps
of metal, or they are people who have recognised how to have some fun -
ever tried wandering around a castle late at night with 50 other people
either playing 'assassin' or with water balloons clutched in their mitts -
it's great!!
To give you an idea of what it can be like I will describe a few of the things that we get up to..
This was at Dover where we did a spot of
archery, when one of the many things that
we were involved with was a public display of bow-work - which is great
fun at the best of times - the fact that lager and beer were being sold
cheaply nearby made it all the better, it's amazing how one's aim improves
under the right circumstances! The siege that was held was rather good -
all sorts of engines being used against the walls, covered rams, artillery
behind swinging shields and the like - very impressive. One thing that I
noted at the time was that, even though I have been to many castles and
similar properties, around the country I do not know them that well, and
that is mainly because most of the time we are too busy putting on a show
to beable to explore properly - though the hide and seek games sometimes
make up for that :-)
At Bodiam castle in Kent we were putting on a small show, but it was one
of the times when we basically just did what we wanted, and the public
could wander around and see what was happening - it was nice and relaxed
and most of us either went exploring, or went off to the woods with some
bows for the benefit of the camera! Bodiam
castle is a very nice looking castle - really the epitome of a castle for
a lot of people - and indeed it is quite defensible. The unfortunate thing
is that the moat is used as the main defense, and the walls have been made
thinner (indeed they have been built into, to be used as part of the
interior rooms) and so, for me, the castle loses a lot of the defensive
ability that it should have.
ColchesterHere
we are at (some time ago now - I forget when exactly) where it was one of
the sunniest days that I can remember - very hot! Our gun crew won the
unofficial 'loudest gun' on the Sunday, which was rather fun, since we
normally get rather good comments regarding our pieces. There were all
sorts of archery going on, including a competition which we did very well
in - I think we got firsts in both the mens and womens categories.
Here is one of our older guns - a breech
loading garrison gun, of the type commonly called a 'murderer' due to the
load (normally flints/nails and the like) that it fired to 'discourage'
people!
We like it because it's loud(ish) and can be reloaded reasonably quickly and from the safety of the insides of a castle, or from behind cover - so it's good for us as well!
In 1994, 3 days after starting a new job, I went off to
Estavayer-Le-Lac in Switzerland for 2
weeks. The drive down there was a little tiring (two of us in an old
Mercedes van - the others in two minibuses and a car) but, once there, it
was brilliant - we were only medieval for the weekends, the rest of the
week was spent lazing in the sun, swimming in the lake, shopping in the
town, chatting etc. - it was a nightmare! :)
As you can see from these two photos - warm wasn't quite the word for it, it was blistering!.. we spent so much time trying to keep cool we just had to try out all of the methods available :-) swimming in the lake was favourite.. As you can see the tents came in really handy as parasols - and we found out the value of well designed tents!
Here's a blast from the past - in 1985 we were helping to celebrate the
500th anniversary of the battle of Bosworth, and on the morning of the
battle itself (I wish I had a camera to take a photo of the early-morning mist,
when sunlight hit the polished armour - very nice) we visited the church at Sutton Cheney to pay our respects,
here we see Clive and John looking
heroic.
It was rather humbling to be taken back to those times - 500 years ago when the fate of so many people, and the future King of England, was happening in the local - what was also good were the reactions of the local people - who still have a very close association with those times. We were getting white roses being given to us as we marched around - all rather strange really.
As we try to encourage all sorts of people to come along we inevitably end
up with new members (of the small and smelly type) coming along - these
two Mark and Allan had heard the gun being
used, and had seen us using it, and wanted to see if they could do it
themselves ... it's amazing how they can pick up the basics so quickly,
and they loved being out and about with all the tents and our extended
family to look after them.
Here's a photo of me, just in case you
thought that I don't really do this sort of thing for real - well I do..
(if it makes you feel any better there aren't too many pictures of me -
lucky for everyone eh?)
This particular one was at Dartmouth castle in 1994, where, amongst other things we greeted a submarine when in was coming into the harbour by firing two cannon, one from just above the water level, and the other from the roof of the castle.
And this is one of the light Swivel guns - these are the best that we have come across of their type; light & easily portable, loud and fast to reload - it is possible for one person to operate one (I did that for an afternoon at Tutbury castle) but much better results are gained with a crew of 5 per gun, at Rye we were shooting once every 15 seconds from the one that we took along!
Ok - well that's that bit, here are the events that we have planned for 1998;
You can either contact me for more information, or turn up to any of the events we are at - and introduce yourself..
