arrows, swords and loud bangs!

On Bank holiday Monday, we went to a historical re-enactment fair. It was yet another last minute outing as a friend had posted about it that morning on facebook. I am so grateful to her as we had a wonderful time!

When we eventually managed to find parking and walk into the park, we entered at the top where there was a regular fair going on, you know the kind, carousel, junk food and rides. My heart sank as this was not what I thought the fair was about, luckily we took a walk and a little further down the hill we came to the re-enactment bit.

Here is the start of the WWII camp.

The people involved in the re-enactment sleep over in the tents and everything.

Everyone is willing to chat to you and tell you about the era that they are portraying.

It all looks so authentic when they are all living and working in their little camps. Well except when their friends from different eras come over for a chat and then you have a roman chatting with a soldier from WWII :o)
speaking of roman soldiers...
Here are the frontier settlers. It was a massive camp.
I think that we missed a battle or two but we were on time for all the good stuff :o)
Here are some knights from different ages fighting. They did this to demonstrate the changing armour and weapons and how and why improvements were made.

After that demonstration we went to look around a bit. The kids found three cannons.

The frontier camp


I love living history!
Waiting for the next battle
Now that the swords were away and we had moved onto guns, things got a LOT noisier. I tried to get some actions shots of the guys firing but as a person who jumps at any loud or unexpected noise, well, most of the action shots were blurred :oP
okay here come the soldiers for the Russian vs German battle.
Germans getting organised.

And they were off! I am not going to describe the battle as it was quite long. It was demonstrating how good the Russians were at camouflage and at fighting, better than the Germans expected.
Look, there are the Russians...

Close combat...
and dead people
Kiki complained about the noise so we told her to cover her ears :o)
Battle over.
Next was an artillery demonstration.

It started with the Romans and their bow and arrows, very impressive! The boys want some of those bows :o)

Then the catapult.
and look at the studs on the shoes.
loading the cannon, yes they are the ones that the kids found earlier.
Wow! it was LOUD!
further along in time...still with the cannons
Kiki hid under my skirt but I saw her peeking :o)
Some more cannons from the WWs.
and something more modern.
The next big battle was the American civil war. The girls were so excited that there were ponies.
And off they go, the south fighting the north.
The south
The North
bang. bang. bang
it was very exciting!

At the end of the battle both side lined up and shot their guns at the same time
and yet another blurred pic :o)
There was a medieval battle on after that, and having recently been to a medieval battle, we decided to take a look at the WWII camps.

Champ got a chance to hold some guns.
Phew they were heavy!
Daddy wanted a turn too
and I wasn't going to be left out!

A really creepy shawl from the war time. The details that were in these camps were incredible, I really admire the people who put these camps together.
We went down to catch the end of the sword fighting.
and to watch the last battle, the Germans vs the English and Americans.
BOOM!

What a fantastic but exhausting day! I don't think that I have ever jumped so much in one day :o)