Over the bank holiday weekend Buckinghams Retinue, along with friends from The Clarence Household, took part in the Easter Escapades event at Beeston castle. Our role was to provide the living history element of an Easter festival, all against the backdrop of the dramatic medieval castle.
Both our music and dance and mumming play displays were performed twice each day, along with our usual historical cooking, mediaeval games, armour and weaponry.
The mighty Beeston castle.
Keeping watch over the Cheshire plain.
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Cauldrons of delicious pottages.
Jenn working on a reproduction medieval embroidery.
Graham carving a spoon.
And there were hot cross buns!
Our next event is the International Living History Festival 2023 at Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Bromsgrove on 16th and 17th April. Please see the Avoncroft website for details: International Living History Festival 2023 | Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings
On the 1st and 2nd July Buckinghams Retinue made the long journey to the Chalke Valley History Festival to take part in one of the largest celebrations of history in the UK.
The festival is held every year in the beautiful Chalke Valley on the edge of Salisbury and the Cranborne Chase AOONB and hosts numerous historians, writers and craftspeople throughout the week, giving talks and demonstrations on a huge range of historical subjects.
Gilded pork being cooked on the spit and then sliced
Watching the jousting
Marchpane subtleties being made
Mark explaining the role of the barber surgeon
Vic and Darren showing the use of the portable bread oven
Rachel discussing food and social status
Salted beef, before and after cooking.
Sewing and armour, a winning combination
Buckinghams Retinue provided a range of living history displays in our camp, including board games, medicine and arms and armour but the big focus was on historical cooking. Rachel went above and beyond to provide a huge range of historical foods, with a particular focus on what an army on the march would have carried and eaten, to fit in with the wider theme of this section of the festival (the end of the Hundred Years War).
Just a part of the fantastic food and cooking display
Group members will be attending the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival on the 8th-9th July but our next full event will be at Skipton Castle, North Yorkshire 15th-16th July for the 15th Century Castle Life event. Please see the Skipton Castle Website for details.
Buckingham's Retinue once again ventured to the depths of Wiltshire to attend the spectacular Chalke History Festival. In addition to authors, historians and presenters, the festival hosts some of the best living history groups and performers in the country, with displays from the Iron Age to the Cold War.
This gave us an excellent opportunity to work together with other medievalists, to provide much larger archery and firepower displays and an excellent turn out for our medieval music and dance demonstration, both of which proved popular with the public.
These were in addition to our regular medieval arms and armour, medicine and cooking talks and displays.
Some group members will be attending the Tewksbury Mediaeval Festival on 13th-14th July. Our next full event will be Skipton Castle, 27th-28th July.
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