Outside in the grounds, I had an unexpected surprise. A medieval campsite complete with soldiers going about their daily work…well…eating their breakfast anyway.
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The reenactors were giving weapons demonstrations and practical hands-on experience. Members of the the Milwr Morganwg group – their society attempts to re-create the camp of a group of mercenary archers from about 1345 to 1490. They had an impressive array of weapons and equipment available for viewing, and handling.
The gentleman below is Eric Pool, a member of the group who was only too keen to show me his skills with the Longbow. This was particularly apt for me as I had only recently visited the battlefield at Crecy (you can read about my visit here) where English and Welsh Longbowmen devastated ranks of French soldiers and Knights in 1346. Eric wields a Scottish Claymore broadsword in the first picture – which was not as heavy as I was expecting, and which would be even lighter had it been honed to a keen edge. In the second picture, Eric stands next to a bag of arrows, the typical load that any English or Welsh archer would have gone into battle with (no quivers here). Although it looks like a lot of arrows, in fact it amounts to about ten minutes worth of ammunition and small boys would have been used as runners to carry more ammunition back to the front lines. You can read ACG’s Weapon File on the Longbow here.
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