Featuring Colonel Hammond’s Regiment of Foote and located across the road from the Three Conies, this was a fab day for families and those interested in Civil War history.
On arrival, we were greeted by our genial host, Richard – the landlord at the Three Conies – who was sitting on top of the tank in the pub car park (don’t ask, I don’t know why it’s there!) before we went across the road to the camp and, having made our donation on entry, went to look round the tents showing how the soldiers and their wives used to live.
There were demonstrations of shooting, cannon firing and lots of opportunities for children to get involved: whether drilling with a pike, trying on a helmet and armour or watching how pewter spoons and figures were made, as well as how to load and fire a musket.
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The first two images show the landlord of the Three Conies on his tank, followed by an explanation of what happens when a lead bullet hits you – and a grapic explanation of how they used to try to remove it!
Shooting practice, shooting critique (perhaps), watching the fire, and the scribe wasn’t very busy at the time we visited:
Lunch preparation: the gentleman with the beard is cooking the sausages, whilst the ladies are preparing bread and beer:
A choice of armour and helmets (I wonder if I can get some for the prop box?), and children trying them out: large, medium and small:
A few candid conversations:
Pikemen: marching to the pub to the beat of the drum; the flag bearer standing to attention and pike practice:
Pike practice: showing their war faces, even then the sergeant major was shouting “how many times have you done this?”, and escaping for a pint after practice. Oh, and Richard (the landlord) was persuaded into costume:
Sleeping? I was just resting my eyes..
Ready, aim, fire and most of them did before disappearing in a cloud of smoke:
Arriving for pike practice: Larger, smaller and smallest:
How to hold a pike, preparing for the charge and showing their war faces (some more quickly than others) and finally how to hold a pike correctly.
Reloading, ready and not quite sure! Women were not allowed in the ranks at this time, but there were several ladies in the line-up because, as they said, the female life at that time was fairly boring
More firing practice: the commander decided it might be a good idea to get the crowd to shout “fire” so that the soldiers could all fire at the same time. It seemed to work, too. And then march out of the area, and relax.
Moving, loading and firing the cannon (and a mini-cannon that was on display)
A last quick wander round the site to see a beautiful pewter jug, a demonstration and, of course, a dog sleeping in the sun
And finally, we had a long chat with the gentleman in charge of the cannon before we went back to the pub to wait for the evening music to start:
The images of the evening will be uploaded to my other Facebook page : LadyGigger
