MY PERSONAL ENGLISH CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT BATTLE REPORT
– LOSELEY PARK, GUILDFORD, SURREY – 23RD TO 25TH MAY 2009.
PREVIOUS BATTLE REPORT
MANCHESTER
ST. GEORGE'S DAY NEXT BATTLE REPORT
WESTON-SUPER-MARE
2009
May 2009 proved to be one of the most actions packed and exhilarating months in my life. Dominated by rehearsals and the one night only performance of a unique under-water opera YOU WHO WILL EMERGE FROM THE FLOOD in which I was in the choir, I barely had time to dry off before starting to pack for Loseley Park.
HISTORIC
BACKGROUND
Guildford saw little direct military action in the English Civil War (misnamed, given the involvement of the Scots & Irish). The battle we would be staging was that of the 1643 Parliamentarian Roundhead attack on Farnham Castle, also in Surrey, which we (me being a Roundhead) won, despite being exhausted from previous engagements and long marches on limited resources. Once secured we would not lose the castle again. The King, Charles 1st would be held prisoner there briefly after his capture by Parliament, before being brought to London for trial and execution.
In our re-enactment, history would change a little and the Royalists would get to win, though we humble re-enactor sacrificial pawns knew that we would not be giving them an easy victory.
FRIDAY
22CD MAY 2009
Being flat broke, I came close to not attending the first Sealed Knot major event of the season, but my Mum was kind enough to lend me some money for the weekend. Fellow Skippon’s regiment pikeman Amy Senior, kindly offered me a lift, along with pikemen Richard Andrews and Nick and we set off around noon, with Manchester shrouded in cloud but it was definitely warming up as we headed South, making good time despite several traffic snarl ups and the giant car park known as the M25 motorway.
We were among the first of the Ashfield’s company of Skippon’s to arrive, though others from the Midland Association were settled in and greeted us as we put our tents up. The campsite was very hilly and uneven, with ground strength varying from crumbling soil to bedrock.
We settled down with beer, wine and food and socialized the early part of the night away as more of our friends arrived.
There was a beautiful and unexpected sight as the darkening night sky filled with glowing red Chinese lantern balloons, drifting slowly over us. Guests at a wedding taking place on the grounds of the lovely park estate had launched them. We joked about the UFO’s they might actually be, and I remembered how close we were to Horsham Common, where the first Martians appear in H. G. Well’s The War Of The Worlds.
We took the quite long walk to the beer tent, which was quite lively in its last few hours of opening. They had some lovely real ales on, and good choices of pre-recorded music playing away. Once finished there, we returned to the Midlands’ camp and I went to bed about 2 AM.
SATURDAY
23RD MAY 2009
With two shows on in the day for The Sealed Knot, (and a Medieval Society skirmish in between) we goy up early and into kit. The weather was warming up very nicely. I got a light breakfast from the traders and chilled out as much as possible before the excitement of the afternoon.
We were not involved in the earlier show, but we were called on for a pre-main battle skirmish in the afternoon. I cat-napped much of the morning, and felt wide-awake as we formed up to march on. As we came into the view of the many members of the public who came to see us inaction, we were ordered to trail our pikes and do our best to look knackered from the long march we had taken from a previous battle. We would repeat this approach on the Sunday & Monday too.
We got a relatively gentle start to the fighting with a point to point engagement rather than having to hedgehog up into a tight sweaty block and compress ourselves against an enemy doing likewise as can be seen in this typical Youtube.
There was a long parley after that, enabling us to rest for a while, and we made the most of it. A cool breeze keeps the heat of the day off – something that would return with a vengeance on the Sunday.
A factor that I noticed immediately was that I was picking out our drummer signals (setting the pace for marching, manoeuvring pikes, etc) much more clearly than at any time in the past seven years. This can only be due to some of the music lessons involved in the rehearsals for the play mentioned above.
From the initial skirmish, we were manoeuvred out for the main battle, which was not going to be easy. We didn’t have one opposing pike block, but two – they tag teamed us – with each getting to rest and take it in turns to batter into us repeatedly. As a front line shock troop, I was often among the first to take the percussive effects of being slammed into and my ribs felt quite bruised even early on. Despite being smaller in body than either opposing force, we held our ground well, even with newcomers in our block. The pace was relentless and we knew we would be given no mercy.
I learned a new tactical approach then – Point to push. Most of the regiment had done this at previous shows, which I had been able to attend. In this system, the front line troops march as if engaging in point battle as the block behind them tightens up and compress for a push. The front line men step back or slow down to let the block collect them and then the block snaps down to closest order right before engaging. Nick Gregory talked me through the process as we did it for the first time this weekend. I felt like I was trying to land a plane while following instructions from the co-pilot or ground control, and Nick taught me well enough for me not to klutz up. Within a few goes at this, I felt like a veteran.
As the battle drew to a close after a failed parley effort by Sir William Waller (played by Parliament Lord General Richard Boyce), we had to make a ragged retreat and then take flight from the enemy as a broken force. I turned to run with what little energy I had left and suddenly found myself airborne as a rugby tackle took my feet out from under me. The enemy had caught us. Some of my friends saw it and couldn’t help for laughing as I ended up head first in the ground literally chewing turf. I got up, recovered my pike and completed my escape from the field of battle.
We returned to our camp, swapping war stories and cracked open well-deserved beers. I was about to get some food from the traders area when the lovely Granny Carol, one of our regiment’s loveliest, most generous members, presented us with a table full of snack foods, and a bottle of wine, prepared for guests who had failed to show up. Though offered as a quick sack, I got enough to eat to save myself having to eat at the trader’s row all night.
After much more drinking, we went to the beer tent again, and enjoyed another night of happy socializing. Mark Cullen, an excellent photographer in our regiment, showed me several tips for use of my own camera, (right before my camera batteries ran out) and before we knew it we had the beer tent to the last few ‘won’t fall over yet’ folk and ourselves.
We headed back to our tents well into the early hours of the
morning.
SUNDAY 24TH
MAY 2009
When you wake up feeling as if you are being cooked in your tent, you know it is going to be a hot day. It was to be quite an endurance test in fact. There seemed to be no air in the air at all – just heat. Wearing woollen doublets in such close humid temperatures can be hellish. I drank lots of water to try to stay hydrated.
We did drill at about 10 am, practicing counter-marching,
the correct way to pick up and place down pikes (too many of us simply chucked
them in a heap after battles) and we took on the King’s Guard in some pike push
practice. Unexpectedly, the enemy
Royalists had felt that their treatment of us on the field was unfair and that
we shouldn’t have been tagged as we had the previous day. We were not concerned
about that – the opposition were. The
Guard had requested that we find them on the field when possible – and we were
happy to oblige. Such warm camaraderie
between enemies is one of the sheer pleasures of Knotting – we were all friends
off the field of battle, regardless of regiment or 17th century
political persuasion.
We were excused from the pre-battle engagement this time, and got to march on shortly before the main battle. We had lots of point to pike engagements, before settling into a mostly point to push and push for push conflict. With singular opponents, the fighting itself was not so brutal, but the heat took its toll and a couple of times I needed to pull out momentarily to get more air. My morion steel helmet was also ripped from my head in one push, and I had to pull out to sort that out too.
Soon after I rejoined the block after one such breath-break, everything degenerated into confusion. We got an order to run so I fled as best I could with one eye behind me for any attack from the rear as I had faced the day before. Another pike fight got in my way and I had to work my way round it, cutting myself off from sight of the Midlanders. The temporary escape was beginning to feel like an accidental desertion for me. I found myself moving right to the crowd line and looked around for Big Richard who was bearing our colours (our reform point. I spotted him right over the other end of the field, and decided to head there, but I was now heavily behind enemy lines. Trying to cross in my red coat would have exposed me to attack. I hit on a bold initiative of my own. I hailed the enemy in the form of Hopton’s regiment, as if I was calling a taxi. I told them they could consider me their prisoner until they had led me over the field to close proximity to the Midlanders they had fought the day before. They were happy to oblige and even shared water with me. As they got as close as they were going to get to my side, I broke off the bank, thanking them for the escort, and made the last few yards to our side, being interrupted by alone royalist pikeman who intercepted me. We fought using the thirteen-foot pikes as swords, and I seemed to be holding hi back, until an ally who was a proper swordsman sprang out and helped him finish me off. I lay dead for a few minutes and then rejoined the regiment just into me for our final break from the field.
We marched off tired and wilting under the heat. It was a rare occasion when I felt glad the fighting wasn’t going on longer.
Becca Blaylock mixed some Pimms and shared other booze with
us, and as evening turned to dusk, we headed for the beer tent where a band was
on stage entertaining us. The musicians were members of the sealed Knot
themselves and played many favourite rock songs from the likes of REM, Green
Day, Queen, etc. I was running low on
money so I hadn’t planned on drinking much. Te bottle of Absinthe passed round
by SK member, Graham Cleary was what made me a lot wobblier than I had expected
to become. I was eventually woken up
outside my tent, and managed to crawl in, but slept on top of my sleeping bag
rather than in it.
MONDAY 25TH
MAY 2009
Strange when you appreciate early morning rain. It promised that the day wasn’t going to be as hot as the Sunday, but within hours, the clouds evaporated and the Sun emerged again in some fury. There was a light breeze that prevented it being quite as severe as the previous day, but it was still uncomfortable.
We did the pre-battle work again, as we had on the Saturday, getting a relatively gentle beginning to the day’s conflict here taking on a very evenly matched opponent, in push after push. We finished by seeing how many pushes we could force on them in five minutes. We did it three times.
We vowed to stay united during the final rout, making sure everyone had at least some other troops in support, - a good plan considering the confusion on the Sunday, but we were surrounded before we could initiate it. Faced with attack from all sides, I took on the nearest enemy pikeman in unarmed combat, dropping to the ground and dragging him with me, though he got the better of me. As no one checked to make sure I was dead (it’s common to see the bodies stabbed with pikes or swords to make sure they are really deceased0, I grabbed the legs of a passing enemy pikemen and dragged him down to his doom before his pals finished me off. I resurrected myself discreetly and rejoined the regiment 9forming up quite close by me and we marched off, defeated, but proud of how well we had fought all weekend.
After a short refreshing break, we started to clean up our
campsite area and takedown tents ready for the journey home. Amy drove back
with the same team she had left with – When we got to Manchester, Richard
Andrews transferred my stuff to his car (as we are near-neighbours) and brought
me back the last few miles - I was home
bay about 10.30 PM, and in bed not long afterwards. Unpacking was left until
Tuesday.
IN
GRATITUDE
I can never thank all my friends enough – My Mum made my involvement financially possible - Amy Senior acted as chauffer there and back, Richard Andrews, who drove me back the last few miles, generously shared lots of alcohol out, as did Graham Cleary, Mark Cullen & others. Mark Cullen also gave me useful tips on use of my new digital camera (actually one handed on to me), Nick Gregory guided through my first experience of ‘point to pike’ engagement. Granny Carol provided some lovely food for all of us; Prince Rupert’s regiment served as host regiment for the event and did an amazing job. Then there was the good sportsmanship of our many opponents, Hoptons, Godolphins, B’stards, and The King’s Guard among them. The water-carriers really had a tough job given the temperature meant lots more need for pikemen and musketeers to be watered – and they did an exceptional job. Without them, the battle would not have lasted so long. Huzzah to all.
LINKS
THE SEALED KNOT http://www.thesealedknot.org.uk/
PHILIP SKIPPONS REGIMENT OF FOOT http://www.skippons.co.uk/
A
TYPICAL RE-ENACTMENT BATTLE CAPTURED ON YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhHsez0CR8&feature=related
LOSELEY PARK http://www.loseley-park.com/
FARNHAM CASTLE http://www.farnhamcastle.com/history/index.asp?http://www.farnhamcastle.com/history/article.asp?ID=48
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Arthur Chappell
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