Tag: medieval costume

Tewkesbury and the King’s goldwork !

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Am posting this from my sister’s house (by the miracles of modern technology if I can get to grips with her picture editing software!) We are having some very nice R and R in between Tewkesbury and our next event at Berkeley Castle this coming weekend. Ellen hopes to go to University here in Worcester in Sept (fingers crossed if A level grades are ok which they should be) so today we are going for another look round the Uni.

We had a fab weekend again at the event which re-enacts the 1471 War of the Roses battle. As usual some of the guys had new armour and kit. This is Luke with his very shiny new 15th century helm (bought from E-bay with brass decorations added by him).

Luke in his shiny new helmet
Luke in his shiny new helmet
Paul was fighting for the first time at Tewkesbury and he had painted a new surcoat. He is a very talented graphic artist and he has painted our new group banners as well.
William de Bohun in his new surcoat
William de Bohun in his new surcoat

 

Ellie was on the battlefield as usual but this time as a banner bearer which meant on the Sunday she got to go and stand with all the banners during the King’s parlay with the Prince. Here she is with the guys before they went on to battle and with our group flag.

At muster before the battle
At muster before the battle
Ellie with the Order of Fighting Knights banner
Ellie with the Order of Fighting Knights' banner

She is wearing her new turquoise dress that I recently finished. On Saturday night we went to a friend’s camp and as it was raining heavily ended up all being in Andrea and Mick’s tent sheltering.

 Andrea does a demonstration of medieval surgery and was showing us some of her props. Having just watched a couple of episodes of Casualty 1909 things had not moved on that far by then!

Andrea with her bag of surgical instruments
Andrea with her bag of surgical instruments
Andrea's amputation saw!
Andrea's amputation saw!

I also managed to get some pics of the King’s (Edward IV) goldwork on his surcoat and cloak before the battle on Sunday. This is Simon de Montfort of the Sun in Splendour group in his wonderful outfit.

LOve the sun glinting off the helmet in this pic!
Love the sun glinting off the helmet in this pic!
A close up of the fleur de lys on the surcoat
A close up of the fleur de lys on the surcoat
The Order of the Garter emblem on his cloak
The Order of the Garter emblem on his cloak

A brill weekend – we were all very glad to get to Jackie’s on Monday for some rest before we head off to Berkeley Castle this Thursday. Here is Jake playing the littlest hobo resting on the bags at the train station.

Jake resting!
Jake resting!

 Will post again in a couple of weeks – after Berkeley am straight off to Spain.

Cosmeston part 3 – the one with armour!

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The battles at this event took place on Sunday and Monday and were fairly small by event standards as this is not a large venue – only probably about 100 people on the battlefield including some very fine archers who did a great job of firing at the English. We were on the Welsh side and Ellie and I water carried on the Sunday (she did that alone on Monday while I packed up the tent so that we could get the early train home!).

Before the battle - lining up with the flags
Before the battle - lining up with the flags

This picture shows the Welsh troops just before the battle began – our lot are at the back of that somewhere!

Lots of pointy sticks!
Lots of pointy sticks!

Since it was not a recreation of a particular battle but a scripted event there were lots of different weapons – these are pikes on the left with a bardiche (large silver blade) on the right of the picture with some swords in the background.

So lots of shiny armour everywhere and as it was one of the very first events of the season there were lots of people with very new kit. This man Gaius ,of the Medieval Combat Society , was camped opposite us and he kindly let me take some pics of his very new and very shiny armour!
Look at the detail on that!
Look at the detail on that!

 These are his shiny new arms …..

More shiny things!
More shiny things!
and shiny new legs!
It was great to catch up with all our friends, have a drink or two.
Richard was there with his partner, my good friend Kat who is the very talented costume and headdress maker that I have mentioned in earlier posts. They were out for the day with Isabella their daughter who has just turned 1 years old. Look at this for an adorable re-enactment family!
Edward and Lady Joan aka Kat and Richard
Edward and Lady Joan aka Kat and Richard

The first show of the year!

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As I mentioned in my last post we had our first show at Bolsover last weekend so I thought I would share some pics of that with you.

Bev in peasant dress
Bev in peasant dress

 Here is Bev looking very lovely all dressed up for her morning role as a peasant – in this role she does calligraphy and takes part in the manorial court and the archery display – involving being ‘rescued’ by Robin Hood!

Ellen at Bolsover
Ellen at Bolsover

 This is wonderful daughter Ellie all dressed up as Lady Rose – this pic was taken early in the morning by the kitchen awning where we cook and eat – you can see what a lovely day it was, really bright and sunny.

Neville looking very dashing
Neville looking very dashing

 John Neville (in real life Mark) is one of our newest fighters and here he is in his lovely new surcoat and mantle (covering on top of the helmet).

Willian de Bouen faces Despencer
Willian de Bouen faces Despencer

 This photo shows on the left our other new fighter William de Bouen (in real life Paul Martin) who has done a great job of painting the heraldry on his surcoat.

My new nun's outfit
My new nun's outfit

 I managed to finish a new outfit just in time for the show – nothing radical but the old one was very faded and had shrunk – I was showing my ankles which is very frowned upon for a C14 nun!

The very scary dragon being shot by Pete and Bev
The very scary dragon being shot by Pete and Bev

 Since it was a St George’s Day show we had the dragon – very well played by Luke who is being shot here during the archery display – he is very well padded!

My role during the tournament, which is the last part of the show is to make sure that all the knights have water, to keep an eye on the crowd in general to be alert for any issues and to make sure they all shout very loudly for their favourite knight!
We have another event coming up this weekend in South Wales at the Cosmeston Medieval Village which I am very excited about – check the Events 2009 page for details of that.

Tomorrow evening I am going to Bradley Wood Scout Camp site for the official opening of the building that I helped build as part of Project Nepal. Have not been able to get down to the site in recent months due to work and general family stuff so I am really looking forward to seeing everyone I went to Nepal with again.

Will post pics of both events some time next week.

Lady Bardolph’s embroidery

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We have had a lovely start to the new re-enactment season with our first show at Bolsover Castle. The weather was really good – we have all come back glowing with red noses – not bad for April! We had about 800 people attend today which is very good so thank you to everyone who came including my friend Ange and her partner Paul.

It was brilliant to be round the camp fire last night . It was a bit chilly last night but only to be expected this early in the year and I had the joy of cooking the first lot of bacon and sausage  butties outdoors of the year. I absolutely love camping!!!!!!

My good friend Lady Bardolph was there (also known as Lyn) and I was really pleased to see her as she has been in hospital for a major operation so it was lovely to see her looking so well. She has a new medieval tent which she had made all the hangings and bed covers for and also had the most beautiful heraldic embroidery that she had done over winter.

This is Lady Bardolph in all her finery.

Lady Bardolph at Bolsover Castle
Lady Bardolph at Bolsover Castle

She is wearing a blue brocade underdress and a red velvet surcoat over that. Her head dress is  a red velvet torque which you can see in detail below.

The torque showing the braiding and beading detail
The torque showing the braiding and beading detail

Below are pictures of hers and her husband’s heraldry in embroidery . These have been stitched on linen using mainly satin stitch – the detail is wonderful! These hang in her new tent.

Lord Bardolph's heraldry
Lord Bardolph's heraldry
Detail of the griffon at the top of the crest
Detail of the griffon at the top of the crest
Lady Bardolph's heraldry
Lady Bardolph's heraldry
Detail of the swan on the crest
Detail of the swan on the crest

Am off to bed very soon as am very pleasantly tired but very happy – have a busy week ahead at work and then we are off again on Friday to South Wales for another event over the Bank Holiday weekend. Have just put up my Events 2009 page – not complete yet but it does gives details of the Wales event and the next May Bank Holiday one so do visit and remember to come and say hello if you visit one of our shows!

Busy day

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Have had a very nice day today – have been trying to finish off the final bits of the build – 5 months on and it is still not done due to various things but we are getting there.

Today have been painting and varnishing and fitting a shelf and mirror in Jake’s shower room , that is nearly finished – just the little bedroom to go and that is currently a decorating store! I will get it all done but do get frustrated that it has taken so long but with the events of the summer (and subsequent no money!) it has taken longer than expected.

I have also been working on my Xmas ornaments – I have not had time to do them for fundraising this year so have just done them for friends and family. Have been stitching little bits of these all year, not got as many done as I had hoped due again to various interruptions like work, the loft conversion and life getting in the way but below is a pic of my first three finished ones.

Ornaments
Ornaments

 Apologies as the pic is a bit fuzzy – am working off old camera as newer one has gone back to the menders after getting wet in Nepal! These are mainly from Quaker samplers – little motifs that I have stitched on sparkly Aida – mostly at 28 count which does wonders for my eyes! I then back them with nice Xmas fabric and stitch round inserting a ribbon – stuff and hem.

I also have a couple of pics from our last medieval event of the year – the weekend before last we were at Bolsover Castle for a Michaelmas event – indoors at the castle rather than the usual camping and tournament show we do. It was very, very cold even indoors but we had quite a few people come to see us and  made decorations and cards with the children and did a small fight display and weapons, heraldry and armour talks. We also had a wonderful banquet and thanks to Bev for cooking the food – pies to die for!

The pics below show the ladies – Lady Bardolph, Lady De Lacy and my lovely daughter Lady Rose and then Rose and Arthur ( or in real life my son Jacob) in one of the castle rooms.

The ladies at Bolsover
The ladies at Bolsover
Rose and Arthur
Rose and Arthur

We have a busy week ahead getting ready for Xmas – we are having a party on Sat and thankfully I am having a new cooker delivered on Thurs – old one blew up again (third time this year!) so decided enough was enough so from Thurs I will have an oven again.

So I will be decorating the house Thurs and Fri – interrupted by the need to go in to work for a very important meeting about Ofsted – they are visiting us early next year which those of you in the know will realise spells minor panic.

Will take some pics at the party and post them later. Have a good week.

Medival costume trauma…and lovely daughter!

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I have spent today trying to make a new surcoat ( a kind of tunic with heraldry on worn over armour ) The first problem was that the new sewing maching I bought recently would not start – no power. Never mind thought I – a woman of the new age who needs no man to sort out minor electrical problems – it probably needs a new fuse in the plug. Which it did but that took nearly half an hour of searching for spare fuses (there were none) then looking for electrical items that had a 3 amp fuse in their plugs (finally found old sewing maching with right size). Then when I threaded it (according to the manual!) it would not work!!!!

So after an hour I went back to the old sewing machine (of course then I had to swap fuses again) which has a habit of jamming every half an hour and sounds like a lawnmower (it is not at all well and never has been which is why we bought a new one).

But I did get it finished in the end – in between cooking tea and was very pleased to have finally got it all done. Then as I was taking some pics to post on the blog I realised that it is all wrong – the colours on the heraldry are the wrong way round! Which means it will have to be unpicked and sewn up again – which of course I now have even less time to do than I did before today! See below for evidence of the error.

This is the old surcoat – red on the left , blue on the right with horse (Invicta the Kentish horse) and lots of sword cuts!
Right surcoat

And this is the new one with blue on the left and red on the right . I shall just sob quietly into my wine now…..

wrong surcoat

However lovely daughter Ellen (here she is looking very glam last night as she was off to a party) has volunteered to unpick it so that I can sew it up again later in the week .

Ellen going to a party

 On a more positive note my Mum was very pleased with her recent Mother’s Day present – my first finish with lovely Noro wool-  the pattern is of my own invention (not vey complex) as it just 10 rows garter stitch then 10 rows of moss stitch but it gives it a lovely texture. Mum lives in Spain but was over for a visit before we went to Barcelona recently – will post pics of that soon.

Mum and her new scarf