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.
Over the late May bank holiday weekend Buckingham's Retinue were at Tattershall castle, a beautiful 15th century brick castle in the heart of Lincolnshire and home of Lord Ralph Cromwell, an important politician in the government of King Henry VI.
The castle
Despite somewhat inclement weather, the castle received good numbers of visitors, with our living history displays being busy throughout the day and the timetabled talks proving popular.
The view of the camp from the castle roof.
Castle volunteer photographer Mike Pounder has kindly taken some wonderful photos of the site and the group, available on his website.
Your humble scribe taking a well earned snooze.
Link to Saturday photos:Buckingham's Retinue (mikepounder.com)
Link to Sunday photos: Buckingham's Retinue-260524 (mikepounder.com)
Due to the cancellation of the Barnet Mediaeval Festival, our next event will now be the Chalke Valley History Festival, in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire on the weekend of 29th and 30th June. Please see the CVHF website for details and tickets: Home - Chalke History Festival (chalkefestival.com)
It is spring at last (allegedly!) and that means it's time for the Buckingham's Retinue annual Make and Mend weekend! An important part of the behind the scenes work that ensures our events can go ahead.
Just some of the kit to be checked and maintained
Group members converged on Mark’s house to go through all of the group kit and make sure everything is still in good condition after the wet season last year and to carry out general maintenance.
The garage shelves before
New shalfs for bills
Repairing bags
Clothing and accessories being repaired
The garage shelves after
Of particular note this year is the construction of a new set of shelves to keep the garage organised and a new protective sleeve for Gwynifer, our cannon.
Eagle eyed fans of the group will have noticed our Events 2024 page has been updated, however we will be making a separate announcement on this once a few final details have been ironed out.
