We’re only just recovering from the biggest event of the year – the August Bank Holiday muster at Compton Verney in the Warwickshire countryside!
Congratulations to Sergeant Major General Philip Skippon’s Regiment of Foote for a great event, which took place in the grounds of the beautiful Grade I listed mansion, which now houses an award-winning art gallery. The 120 acres of landscaped grounds, designed by Capability Brown, was an ideal spot to recreate the Battle of Edgehill.
The first major battle of the English Civil War, Edgehill took place just a few miles down the road near the village of Kineton on 23 October 1642. Two months after King Charles raised his standard at Nottingham – effectively declaring war on his own Parliament – his army faced that of the Parliamentarian general Earl of Essex. Although the ensuring battle was effectively a harrowing stalemate, a tactical blunder by Essex left the road to London open to the King.
For many of our members, this was their first major event since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, so much of it was spent catching up with old friends and reaquainting ourselves with rusty old skills. As its usual with the August Bank Holiday events, it was a fantastic weekend of activities, socialising and fighting – and even included an unexpected flypast from a Lancaster bomber!
The battles themselves were hard work, though thrilling. As well as the usual musket fire and pike pushing there was loads of cavalry on the field, which is fantastic to witness – and we even got to see the King’s standard captured part way through the battle. As always, we returned to camp exhausted but grinning.
Very importantly, this was an opportunity to reward members of the regiment for their hard work and dedication. Congratulations to Martin Huck, a stalwart member of our pike block who has been promoted to Elder Sergeant!
Here are just a few images of the weekend’s battles from photographer Ruth Lochrie:
And, of course, when we weren’t battling we were having a fun time with the regiment. The Saturday night was the time for our traditional ABH weekend party and this year’s theme was horror! As always with Manchester’s parties there was a brilliant range of costumes on display – from Janet Leigh in Psycho to Shaun from Shaun of the Dead, from TWO versions of Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man to Dani from Midsommar, from cavemen to clowns, from witches to werewolves, from Harley Quinn to a rather unsettling ghost! It was a fantastic evening with plenty of mad games and three witches who couldn’t seem to get their potions bubbling the right way!
The August Bank Holiday event marks for us the end of our reenacting season so it was wonderful to see the regiment in such fine form.
While we’re moving into winter quarters now, we’re itching to get back into kit and we have some great events planned for next year. If this account and the photos and video below have whetted your appetite and you fancy giving it a go it couldn’t be easier – for as little as £10 you could have a taster weekend and we’ll provide all the reenactment kit you need! Visit our website, drop us a line, and you could be marching onto a battlefield with us!