Robin Hood Pageant

We spent the week running up to the Robin Hood Pageant avidly watching the weather forecast. In the end, the weather was about as good as it gets for the end of October. It was a bit blustery, but not too cold & only a few light showers on the Saturday. 

The show is run by the council at Nottingham castle to coincide with half term. There are all sorts of traders, musicians, storytellers, craftworkers and folk like us making up the 'village' as well as displays in the arena from jesters, jousters, men at arms & the like. Our dateline is around 1193 to coincide with Richard the Lionheart's return from captivity after going on crusade.

We pitched the tents on the Friday afternoon, ready for an early start on the Saturday. We soon got a fire lit & were cooking the usual bacon & sausages for breakfast. Once that was all done, our cook could start her work. She researches food from the period & then proceeds to produce wonderfully authentic fare from over the fire. (We had meatballs one day then lamb with apricots the next, as well as lots of accompaniments). 

We were joined by some friends in other groups of Regia Anglorum, who helped with the tasks  needed to put on a show. We were allocated two slots in the arena each day. This year we decided to have a tussle between the earl of Leicester (loyal to King Richard) & the earl of Nottingham (one of Prince John's men). After some heated discussion as to whose men were best, they decided to decide the matter by combat. However, the earl of Leicester's men were rather off colour & didn't fight particularly well. Leicester's men then spotted a woman in Nottingham's camp (referred to as 'the old hag'), who had been seen in their kitchens. She was accused of poisoning their men to ensure defeat. Needless to say the Nottingham camp refuted this & defended her. More fighting! Gary did a fine job with the commentary & got the crowd shouting for Nottingham, Leicester, &, at one point, even the old hag! On the Sunday we had a shire reeve trying to see fair play, but only just succeeding.

Josh brought his film crew up from his university & they were around all weekend, filming various aspects of the event. We await the end result with anticipation! 

All too soon, the weekend drew to a close & we were packing up again. Due to the clocks going back overnight, it was dark by the time we'd finished, so the last check round was done by torchlight! 

SHERWOOD THROUGH TIME

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009

We had the most fantastic weather for our autumn weekend in Sherwood forest. The show is organised by EventPlan, who gather various groups together to provide a timeline of displays. The living history encampments were arranged so that as you walked from the visitor centre, to the Major Oak & back to the centre, you pass through time from the iron age to world war two. 

Also lurking in the woods are the highwaymen, who can appear out of the trees & demand your wordly goods whilst brandishing pistols. 

Our camp was near the beginning of the timeline, as we were working to a dateline of 1068, when the Normans started building Nottingham castle. 

Cooking is always a regular feature of the wic, & the warmth from the fire was appreciated, especially early in the morning & later in the day! The smoke however manages to plague everybody. On the Saturday we had an onion & carrot pottage, but on the Sunday we were treated to a beef stew with a pearl barley vegetable pottage. 

We had various crafts going on at the wic, including spinning,

wood carving, wood turning, and more work on the embroidery for the Wychurst longhall.

 

Stephen & Trevor also started splitting the willow logs, as the first stage in the process of making a shield authentically.

This year we were assigned the arena around the Major Oak for our displays. This entailed a walk of a few minutes through the trees.

The displays included a display of weapons & their use, individual fighting, group fights &, just for a change, a wedding. 

The bride & groom exchanged vows, with the agreed exchange of goods & surety being provided by the named relatives. The groom was holding on to his riches until having to hand them over to his brides relatives.

The happy couple could relax after all the legalities had been observed.

We enjoyed the usual banter back at the wic, before packing up at the end of Sunday afternoon with the autumnal sunshine slanting through the trees. 

Tollerton Village Event 2009

Every year the villagers of Tollerton get together for the annual village event on their open space. As the parish council kindly let us train there, we put on a display at the event by way of 

thanks. This year we decided to put on a later period event, based on the revolt of Henry II's sons 1173-74. This gave the chaps to get their surcoats out & full face helms.

 The weather was very kind to us, giving us a sunny, pleasant day. Perhaps it was a bit too warm to be fighting in full mail, but it suited the audience.

 Conroi de Vey were joined by their friends from other groups of Regia Anglorum, and Conquest. 

We set up our wic & got breakfast sorted, so that the real cooking of the day could begin. 

As usual Sue did us proud with a tasty menu, and interesting things to try, including a pearl barley 'risotto' style dish. 

Our panel for the Wychurst wall hanging got an airing & some more work done on it.

There were also various other crafts being practiced on the wic, including spinning & leatherwork.

We had a couple of sessions in the arena. As Nottingham was loyal to Henry II & Leicester was for the rebels, we envisaged some aggravation between the two forces. An announcement of some of Leicester's men being spotted nearby caused the Nottingham men to rally, giving us a chance to explain the clothing & armour as the men dressed for battle. 

A clash between the forces followed. 

In the later session, the warriors showed their skills with different weaponry, and different styles of fighting, in groups and as individuals.

Mike demonstrated that the reach of a spear & the speed of a lightly armoured man can prevail over the heavily armoured knight (just not very often). Being a seasoned, sneaky, back stabbing fighter helps!

Even after their exertions in the displays, Conroi de Vey was still ready to give their all in the 

tug-of-war competition. We entered a couple of teams, but the slippy turn shoes didn't help our efforts any & we came 2nd. 

This event always gives us a friendly, relaxed show. We always enjoy ourselves & the local folk are most appreciative of our displays.

Sutton Courtenay Show

On 17th May 2009, the Vikings returned to Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, 1,000 years since their last visit. Well, sort of. Regia Anglorum, our national group, had been asked to put on a display as part of the village show on the Sunday. However, on the Saturday, one of the replica viking longships was rowed 12 miles up the Thames from Oxford to Sutton Courtenay. They docked in the grounds of a house, part of which is a 12th century hall. Our campsite was within these gardens, giving us a lovely view of the old building. On the Sunday, we set up an arena for the warriors to do battle in, whilst I got on with the business of setting up a woad vat. The group had had some cloth woven to an authentic spec for our period, & Steve wanted to dye his in woad. We have a fair sized cauldron which we use for this, but even so it was a bit like fitting a quart into a pint pot. This meant that we had to keep turning & moving the cloth to minimise any blotchiness. Once we had achieved a good blue, we continued dyeing various linen caps, wimples,a piece of silk, skeins of yarn & even a bone whistle (just to see what happened). We even over-dyed a old brown tunic, and got an interesting sea green colour. Once the bath was exhausted, we allowed it to cool, ready for packing up at the end of the show.  It was a pleasant, relaxed show in a lovely setting where we were made to feel most welcome.

Rufford April 2009

Rufford abbey is situated in northern Nottinghamshire, close to Sherwood forest. It provides a lovely venue for us. This event was organised by Eventplan as a multiperiod bring & buy. Conroi de Vey decided to use the weekend for training & chilling out, as well as booking some table space to sell some re-enactment items. We set up our wic alongside some friends from Regia Anglorum (our umbrella organisation), got the fire going to have hot food later in the day & then got settled down to some craft work. Stephen showed us how to work bone, displaying his skills with strap ends & buckles he’d made. Trevor took folk under his wing with some wood working, the weather being kind enough to get the pole lathe out as well as the shave horse. On the Sunday we did a bit of textile working. Susan progressed further with her tablet weaving, and there was the ubiquitous spinning going on throughout the day.

The guys had a break from these activities by marching off to the arena for a couple of bouts of fighting. After the face offs between lines of combatans they went on to single combat. Trevor fought valiantly (for an ‘old un’) but at the end of the Sunday session, Jamie was ultimately victorious.

All in all we had a relaxed weekend, sharing some good conversations with friends, & furthered our craft skills. We’re now looking forward to our next show in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.