We’re all back home after a brilliant weekend at Newark in Nottinghamshire, battling on the original earthwork defences of the town at the Queen’s Sconce in the blazing hot sun – not even an England game could stop us (though we were very pleased with the score when we got back to camp!).
Photos by Andrew Garratt
The home of the National Civil War Museum, Newark was one of King’s Charles most important bastions and is blessed to have these incredible defences still there, set in a lovely little public park, and available for us to battle on. We were reenacting two scenes from the first siege of the Royalist town in 1643, with a ‘Living History’ camp perched atop the slope and with a battle each day.
Photos above by Andrew Garratt
Our pike division joined with their friends in Hutchinson’s and Gell’s regiments to form a ‘Fairfax’s’ block, facing off against The King’s Lifeguard, who were also organisers of the event. It’s hard work in that kind of heat but they acquitted themselves well and won the field both days – a huge ‘huzzah’ to our KG friends for their admirable stand and dogged determination, they are an inspiration!
Meanwhile, on the crowdline our musket division joined with Lord Grey’s musket to take on Prince Rupert’s musket – despite being outnumbered three-to-one they held their own and even managed to fit in some hammy ‘casualty’ acting!
Photos by John Beardsworth
And, of course, once the battle was over and the public had gone there was the chance to kick back and have some fun! Thanks to some glorious weather, after battle we chilled out on our campsite as the sun went down before heading to the beer tent for some laughs, though while we know our Quartermaster Brian loves the beer tent, we don’t think he banked on getting handcuffed to it! (don’t worry, it was all for charity and he did get released … eventually)
At this event we got to welcome a new member, Ben, who came along as a ‘temp member’ to see whether the Sealed Knot is for him – he loved it and will be coming back for more! After giving musket a go on the first day, he decided to try pike and turns out to be something of a natural. We’re looking forward to seeing him at future events. This is a ‘before and after’ shot of him after a weekend of two battles and much hard partying…!
And a good regiment should always look to the future and make sure the next generation catch the reenactment bug – though perhaps our member Scott might be starting his daughter, Penny, a little too soon…
