Event Reports 2009

Stevenage Museum - Archaeology of Indiana Jones

2009-10-19T19:04:00Z

A single day event at Stevenage museum saw the group give a multimedia presentation on the real life influences and pre Indy inspirations for the creation of the now world famous Indiana Jones. A 20 minute talk punctuated with fights based upon moments from the film entertained four separate crowds that came through the museum on a steely grey day.

From the Chachapoyan idol scene, through the bazaars, to German airfields and beyond several iconic moments were recreated for the public, which coupled with Gary's excellent presentation saw everyone from museum staff, to the public to us have a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday afternoon.

Our specific thanks to Gary for preparing such an excellent presentation, to Ben for the tireless sound effects and as ever to Steve for getting everything there and back safely.

Kingston Maurward - Napoleonic Weekend

2009-10-05T17:25:00Z

A slight departure from normal for us this weekend as we took part in the Napoleonic Weekend at Kingston Maurward. A number of true Napoleonic Society and groups where present along with us all talking and working with the public. The Allied and French encampments where very atmospheric filled with men, women and children all dressed in exceptionally good costume. The market and shows at the House where equally as interesting with our friend the excecutioner this time showing his more gentle side at a Georgian meal.

In a packed programme, something was happening every 30 minutes we offered two different shows at 11AM and 1PM each day.

Cutlass Drill.

The cutlass drill took on a different form this time with adult participation in a 'Generation Game' style play off. Although we did not realise at the time that one of the contestants was a 3rd dan Ju Jistu instructor and caught on very quickly (all of 3 seconds) before mastering the art of the cutlass. After the cutlass drill the children had a go with the foam weapons and then repelled borders by beating the group to a pulp. Immedieatly after this a tavern challenge turned nasty as two drunken sailors fought it out to settle an old score and managed to kill everyone in the pub apart from themselves.

Tavern Brawl.

The tavern brawl starts with explaining a few of the different tricks of the stage combat trade ending in Alisa knocking some sense into Graham and John. After this the Tavern saw a nasty brawl break out due to some cheating during an arm wrestle.

All in all everyone enjoyed themselves with much positive feedback from the public and the customer alike. The weather, although not great, was merciful and both days saw sunny intervals breaking through the clouds which no doubt helped the organisers with the weekends events that where enjoyed by all of the group.

Sherborne Lodge Park

2009-09-23T12:26:00Z

Well everyone worked there socks off at the event with none stop work every 45 minutes and even in between during the ghosttalks down in the cellar; which appears to pick up new ghosts with each visit from the group. In a centuries time I ihave no doubt that Lodge Park will be counted as one of the most haunted pieces of real estate in the world.

Not including the ghost talks most of us participated in three displays repeated twose throughout the day.

The Duel.

Two gentlemen duellists unable to resolve their differences meet in the gardens of the park to duel until satisfaction is acheived; it does not go well. Misfiring pistols are replaced by rapiers which see the disgruntled duellists injuring and killing everyone around them without so much of a drop of their own blood being split! The duel is cancelled in the end, in case anyone should get hurt, as the weapons are rather dangerous.

The Cheater

Enjoying a drink and cards on the lawn one 'cad' is found to be cheating. The ensuing disagreement see's all hands to the fight as old scores are settled and new ones are made.

The Footpad

While discussing the useless field strategies of the farmer teh Gentleman finds himself pickpocketed by an unlikely footpad. After sending in the boy to get the good back in goes the farmer and then finally the gentlemen. None are able to get anywhere and leave with bruises and broken bones ... until the boys mother turns up and teaches the fotpad a few lessons he won't quickly be forgetting!

Played for entertainment and fun at the site, the visitors, staff and society all had a great time in the splendid weather the weekend brought.

Chedworth Roman Villa, Gladiators

2009-08-26T07:52:00Z

This year's trip to Chedworth brought with it our premieres of the telling of the 3rd Slave revolt lead by Spartacus and a demonstration on how animals were hunted and caught for the arena's animal games. With a large contingent of children in the crowds these shows went down very well as they are designed for a youngsters introduction to these histories.

In front of the builing we saw the usual queues as people tried on various pieces of equipment and asked questions about the original gladiators and the fascinating history that surrounds them. At one point just over 100 people stood outside the building as members explained about the games and showed various merchandise that was available for the original patrons to buy from vendors around the games.

With six arena events a day the weekend was very busy but tremendous fun.

It was also the first run out for Ben and Meriel fighting as gladiator and cook respectively.

As ever a big thankyou from the group to Gary for his narration throughout the day, to Steve for taking care of the logistics and the staff at Chedworth Roman Villa for their hospitality.

Lulworth Castle, Medieval Village

2009-08-12T16:41:00Z

Staying for five days in the grounds of Lulworth Castle was an event in itself. The magnificant surroundings, castle back drop and generally fine weather made for a great event enjoyed by the group, the public and event organisers alike.

We stayed mostly with the Fiore Dagger drills for our arena displays, combining history, entertainment and action to demonstrate medieval dagger techniques used to protect individuals from the many nefarious characters the Middle Ages seemed replete with. Afterwards the children helped demonstrate the Battles of Crecy and Poitiers by defeating the French in foam pipe battles that left the members of the group on the floor bettered and bruised and the children having had a great time.

In between the fights and demonstrations a constant trickle of people came to ask questions and try on equipment.

One evening saw us filming, in the woodland near to the Castle, a dramatisation of the practical application of the Fiore skills used in the daily arena displays.

Pictures and the results of Gary's hardwork on the film will be up on the site shortly.

A big thankyou to Steve for driving us all back and forth and arranging a great deal of the logistics for the event, as ever!

Peterborough Cathedral

2009-06-29T08:30:00Z

In a change to our usual events at Peterborough where we are normally based in the city's marvellous museum. This time we found ourselves in the wonderful medieval location of the Cathedral grounds. We would have been hard pressed indeed to find a better location for a 1360's events; with the atmospheric Cathedral towering above us and the arena events being held in the Cathedral precincts.

One of many groups there we found ourselves more in the middle of the timeline this event than our more usual starting position of being the earliest dated group there. Romans, Vikings, Saxons, medieval, Napoleanic and World War II reenactors took to the floor to create a very full and very interesting day. The staff responsible had hoped for 5,000 people to attend over the weekend and found themselves deluged with 10,000 people through the gate on the first day alone.

Traders and markets stalls only added to the atmosphere with their stands and entertainment available for all to see as they entered the cathedral grounds.

Our arena events saw us fight as the French against a small, desperate but none the less victorious group of English, in our children's fights. We then moved through the sword and dagger drills ending finally in the Wager by Battle between two brothers and their enemies in a fight all around the in terrible insult of Quakebottom that was levied against the youngest brother and his desire to get his hands on the others red Coat of Plates as his own one was looking a little worn out. Based upon this work and the tireless efforts of the members (special mention to Paul and Steve) at the kit area the event organisers all fed back that they were more than happy with the work, booking us again for next year.

As ever the building garnered huge interest from the site visitors and reenactors alike, dressed this time as a Reeve's house it stood along side our newest building acquisition the military bell tent, both providing excellent cover from the sun which was brutal in the equipment and humidity, but none the less aided in bringing people to the event instead of driving them away as the rain can often do.

As ever the local Chinese restuarant saw us desend upon it, not in kit (maybe next year), and thoroughly enjoy an evening of nice food, company and drink.

In conclusion the event was a resounding success, enjoyed by all that went there both from the public and the group and we are looking forward to next year already.

Lulworth, Pirates

2009-05-25T19:32:00Z

Our first Deeds: Stage Combat event of 2009 is finally over - and what a scorcher!

The threatened rain and thunder never materialised and after a brief rain shower on Monday morning the weather was simply scorchingly hot and in true English tradition we all complained about the heat as much as we would have done the wet.

The two days represented a full schedule for us with us doing one (sometimes two) acts in front of the Pegleg Parrot, our building, on every hour. This show saw us bring three popular acts for the public and members to enjoy alike.

Act One: Cutlass drill and children's fight.

Based upon the Royal Naval cutlass drills of the 18th and 19th century we demonstrate the Guards, cuts, thrusts and parries taught every sailor in the HM Navy over these periods. After a few Corporal Jones' moments the children are brought out from the crowd and shown the same techniques in a mini generation game moment after which they get o pit their new found skills against six salty sea dogs in a pitched battle with foam weapons and a lot of shouting and screaming - the children always seem to win unilaterally.

Act Two: Prize Fight

Creating a late 18th Century county fair atmosphere we present Big Bill the Bullying Pugulist from Peckham who will take on all comers for a few pennies. Quickly knocking his way through some itinerate dead beats; although his day is quickly ruined when Tom Cribb roles in and takes him apart punch by punch.

Act Three: The Press

The tavern, the Pegleg Parrot, becomes the scene of press gang gone horribly wrong as two different worlds collide. A couple of con men determined to make a few shillings through fixed arm wrestling bouts, interrupt the drunken press of a local lad with disastrous results for most involved as the ensuing fight see's three people killed in an argument about the arm wrestling competition, one man pressed into service and another arrested for the killing of the tavern tart ... *ahem* lady.

Our final event for the day was being involved as the forlorn hope storming a pirate barracaide and getting a face full of shot and steel from a monstrous deck gun and littering the battlefield with dead and dying seamen.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed the event and would like to extend our thanks to the following people:

The Paladin's of Chivalry and the other people (sorry we did not get group names) for filling in the background of the pegleg parrot during our fights and getting stuck into the spirit of the shows in the nature they where intended, you where great!

PASTE for showing us it is possible for living history events to be organised well.

Bucket for letting us litter his otherwise clean(ish) battlefield.

Gary and Chris for shouting themselves horse over the weekend.

We are already looking forward to next year.

Stevenage Museum, March 2009

2009-03-22T10:43:00Z

Stevenage museum has become a frequent booker of the society, this being our fourth visit to the location as Roman gladiators.

The museum display group attended the site taking the back third of our building and all of the gladiator equipment along to set the scene in the museum's lecture room, converting the back end of the room into a gladiatorial armoury for the public to talk about the equipment and even try some of it on.

With two main gladiatorial events being held in the lecture throughout the afternoon we had to use some elements of the wet weather routine as the museum requested we fight indoors instead of out on the grass to the back of the building. This was as a direct request from some of the museums paying customers the year before because of the previous areas close location to the main road. However, this was not an issue for the group as we train each week to ensure that the fightingportions of the shows can be upscaled or drawn down depending upon the specific requirements from the customer and demands of the actual location and site.

With the group, our building and 50 members of the public, neatly and safely contained in the lecture room the shows went off without a hitch.

Gary gave his usual mixture of comedy, fact, entertianment and crowd participation in his prelude talk before the gladiatorial fights that was well appreciated by the museum staff and public alike. Then Steve (Severus the Umpires) ushured the gladiators into the arena space. First to fight where the ladies, Alisa fulfilling her role as the evil, professional gladiator and Blip filling hers as the high borne lady with equal skill. Fighting against one another as dimacharius they did an excellent job with this most difficult of gladiator types.

Then came the veteran pair demonstrating the love of Greece vs Rome the pairing was a Hoplomachus (John) against a Thracian (Graham). Polycarp and Rotundus fought hard, but clearly not quite hard enough as the mob demanded the death of Polycarp at the end of the bout.

At the end of the day the high borne lady carried the day winning the adoration of the crowd, some money and a rudus.

Afterwards the public were brought forward to the building area to ask questions, look at the gladiatorial merchandise and try on equipment.

In conclusion the day went extremly well with museum staff, us and the public having a great day.

Our thanks to the staff at Stevenage museum for making us so welcome, supplying us with coffee and tea throughout the day and generally being so helpful.