So last weekend was at Wrest Park with the Beaufort Companye – although we were somewhat in disguise as just generic English troops, and not wearing the blue and white livery. Wrest Park had been our first experience with the Beauforts last year, and that’s one of the reasons I think I will be very fond of it, but as an event it’s a delight. The venue itself is lovely, but the event is also fairly small and relaxed, with a low-stress pace and the opportunity to stroll around the huge garden in relative peace and tranquility.
On the Saturday evening one of the groups (whose name I keep losing in my head) which has strong crossovers with KDF Nottingham did a brief lesson on some (real) longsword and messer techniques for the re-enactors. It was nothing too exotic – some people were looking at the Zwerchhau with messer, and others were doing a simple counter cut into an Oberhau – but even being shown how to stand and step better, and how to hold the sword, were an eye opener for many re-enactors.
Given the enthusiastic response then, we spent a chunk of time on Sunday morning just training and drilling with Federschwert, and talking the public through what they were seeing. So yes, one of the new projects for Beaufort’s purposes will be doing a lot more of this, and doing it in a more structured fashion.
And once we get the roof-racks on the car, and are taking pole weapons to events, we may even introduce some of the evil and exhausting pole weapon drills.
There’s another giant new project started too, which I will write about later today.