A Guide to Re-enactment

I have been at a loss recently at what to write about with everyones' blogs being so exciting of late. With all the exciting social commentary on important questions such as why Christmas shoppers are so fucking rude and why guns are cool. How could I compete with that and to make matters worse my musings on the decline of the moustache led to one individual attempting to disembowel them self on their own keyboard. So now I won't be reviewing the moustache wax I ordered on the interweb which is probably a good thing as it's German and called "Brother's Love". Hmm....

Anyway moving swiftly on to today's babbling which is an introduction to the world of re-enactment. This isn't the kinky kind of stuff that goes on between a couple making a last ditch attempt to save their marriage this is historical re-enactment where you get to dress up in funny clothes and pretend that it's not the twenty first century.

The world of historical re-enactment can be horrifically expensive with uniform and equipment costing several thousand pounds. To avoid huge costs join a popular time period with lots of suppliers as competition generally brings down costs. The beardy weirdy brigade (the viking and saxon groups), the mud eaters (the medievals) and the English Civil War groups are the best catered for in Britain. I joined ECWS (the English Civil War Society) in 2003 and the uniform cost roughly £150 which was spread out over a couple of years thanks to the regiment having loan kit for beginners and foot wear was even pricier at £90 (don't be put off there are cheaper traders). I opted to become a musketeer with all the added headaches and cost that come with it (£50 for a shotgun licence and £250 for a gun) but if you want to be a pikeman the pointed stick and armour are provided by the regiment. Of course there are additional costs for getting to events and camping gear which I won't bore you with.

Now I've finished boring you to death with the cost lets look at in detail what happens at an ECWS event...

1) Turn up on Friday night tired as you've just driven 4 hours to get to the event after finishing work. Put up camp and head for the pub or beer tent and get thoroughly blasted on your favourite poison. Engage in drunken banter, singing and dancing.

2) Wake up thoroughly hung over and totter off to the loos (the toilets are another post all in themselves). After relieving yourself head for the water tap to get water to have with the aspirin/ibuprofin/paracetamol you brought with you. Return to bed.

3) Reawake to the dulcet bellow of your sergeant who would like you to get dressed and ready for drill (what?!) NOW! You drill until the officers grow bored, the sergeant gets fed-up of trying to get you to walk in step or you finally remember which of your feet is the left one.

4) Have breakfast and depending on when and where you're supposed to assemble for the march mooch around the camp site or look "orfentic" on the living history. Generally the former involves drinking either tea or more beer, the latter chopping fire wood and answering daft questions from the public (trust me you'll get loads). 

5) Form up for the march and stomp onto the battlefield. The battle then begins after a prolonged wait and the pikemen (and women) batter the snot out of each other and the musket fire upon one another whilst all the while officers are shouting a load of bollocks at them. All the while cavalry are trying to kill just about anyone that lets them get close enough and the artillery are doing their best at deafening not just themselves but the rest of the armies too.

6) Give a salute to the crowd and march off the field saluting fellow regiments as you go. Have a few beers and toddle off back to camp for dinner. After dinner return to the pub/beer tent and get thoroughly blasted on your favourite poison. Engage in drunken banter, singing and dancing.

7) Repeat points 2 to 5 before saying your goodbyes and shooting off or if you had leave booked do point 6 too and head home on the Monday.

This sort of thing is par for the course for most regiments within ECWS and other groups too. Some are more safety conscious than others and drill will of course vary. Smaller groups might introduce cameos into their skirmishes where individual combats are carefully arranged and choreographed. There are groups who take re-enactment alot more seriously these are generally more expensive kit wise but worth joining if you're a hardcore re-enactment nut like me. At the moment I'm getting together kit for a French army Irish Piquet (see below) for re-enacting the 1745 Jacobite Uprising.

The cost of this kit is bloody eye watering costing at least £1200. The main problem is this period although well documented (and therefore easier to copy) it isn't so popular and therefore traders are thin on the ground with most being in America because of the popularity of the American War of Independence (AWI) over there. I'm using up my savings (specifically put aside for this) and have bought bits of kit over time to off set the cost. I'm going to be skint again but I will look the mutt's nuts. Ho-hum I'm off to try out that moustache wax. Au revoir.