Hever

 Greeting

I spent the August Bank Holiday taking part in a re-enactment at Hever Castle.

I gave my friend Sandy a lift (with her blue and white cone tent) on Friday afternoon and arrived at about 4PM.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening putting up the tents and awnings and getting some of the other set-up done.

Here are a couple of pictures of my tent and banners.

Saturday was quite hot, but not unbearably so when the clouds were over the sun. There was also a bit of wind.

As usual, we stayed in camp for most of the day, talking to the public. We did a dance show just before lunch , which had a larger audience than previous years.

I armoured up in full plate for the battle at 4PM . Unfortunately, the clouds decided to part for quite a bit of this and I chose discretion over valour, by fighting in two engagements and sitting out the final one.

We had a good meal ( prepared by our excellent cooks) and sat around the camp fire drinking ,talking and ( occasionally) singing until about midnight. I sang Old Macdonald in Latin and quite a bit of Tom Lehrer- and The March of The Sinister Ducks before realising how late it was (for me) and turning in.

Here is a picture of my tent display, including some of my vestments hanging off the cartwheel spokes.

I  vested on Sunday morning and sang a Mass.

I had a smaller congregation than last year and  and unfortunate gust of wind blew some of the host off the paten ( I was able to quickly replace and still had enough),but it otherwise went well.

It even had a small audience of Public...

I armoured up for the battle and, this time, the weather was favourable. I fought right through to the end and really enjoyed myself.

Unfortunately, I think I overdid it a little - especially, as this was the first event for three years that I fought in my my full steel harness- and  strained my right shoulder.

Consequently, I did not fight on Monday, but I did marshal a smaller fight in out camp's fight arena.

Here are some pictures I took of the encampment on Sunday morning, before everyone else was up.

I was able to close up the tent after lunch on Monday and start packing down what I could inside.

This gave me a bit of a head start, but I still did not get off site till after 7PM .

I got home to about 8.30, which was a little late for me to be eating( I'm hypoglycaemic), but not too bad.

All in all, a good and enjoyable show and there were no fight injuries.

Until next time

Adieu