The show was smaller this year than previous years, but the medieval group they got in - Historia Normannis - were really good. When I was there, they were explaining the economic aspects of medieval warfare to an interested group of members of the public (such as, you don't want to kill too many peasants because they're needed to grow the crops, and you don't want to kill your noble adversary if you can capture him and hold him to ransom - I'm simplifying madly, obviously). They also did a display where they attacked cabbages on sticks to show the effects of different weapons. One of the women on camp was dressed as a Benedictine nun, a costume choice that isn't often seen since nuns tended to be cloistered and not wandering around the countryside with a bunch of knights! One chap, dressed as a peasant this year, said he'd portrayed King John at a show in Swaffham last year. Apparently, King John is very popular in Swaffham, because he granted them their market charter! He's also married to someone who works for Hereford Council, so he's been involved in most of the History Days they've held. Last year, he was a Victorian gent, sipping tea and eating cucumber sandwiches in the tea tent!
The group has a website at www.normannis.co.uk, and they were also doing a show in Flintshire that same weekend, so it would be interesting to see the whole group working together if only half of it is this good.
Wandering around the show was this executioner:
This little dog didn't like him at all!
There were also stalls selling crafts and displays from local history groups, falcons, an archery butt, a vintage car, a medieval doctor and a scribe demonstrating their crafts, and a folk orchestra by the refreshment vans.
Later, while I was doing a bit of shopping round town, I came across these drummers, who were collecting so they could afford new drum skins:
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