Looking for an Executioner

I turned a few heads as I walked up through town this morning. But then, I was carrying a large axe over my shoulder, and I was wearing a long skirt and a cloak as part of my seventeenth century costume - the respectable bonnet was put on when I reached the castle. "Are you the Grim Reaper?" one chap asked. "No, but we're looking for an executioner," I said.
Paul came up with the block, and we set it up under the Norman tower of the castle for him to take photos. He also brought a big, leather-bound Bible, which I held while our stand-in volunteer donned the executioner's mask and wielded the axe, and Boz tried the block out for size. Strangely, what with the mask and the bonnet and Boz being head down on the block, all of our faces were hidden - but it made quite an effective tableau.
Boz went away to write a press release, with a job description for an executioner (Phil the Fruit said that there should be a queue of people applying for that job, and Dickie Hebbard, who was standing next to him, would do it for free! Steve Like asked if we'd be doing it for real.)
It's all in fun though - and for me at least, it's a case of any excuse to dress up!