Bang bang lie down

Bank holiday here so we went to a recreation of an English civil war (link to photos) battle on the original site at Berkeley castle. Lots of men and women in unflattering very earthy costumes ( there is a whole industry making cotton shapeless gowns with no zips etc)

Was a lot of fun for them you could tell, they lined up, the canons fired huge bangs making the child by me whimper and cover his ears for the whole thing much to the annoyance of his dad.

When they got closer they used the muskets , lots of smoke and bangs and occasionally smoke rings that would float up into the sky.

When they got closer still and the pikes were to long the men formed a huddle and pushed each other , like a stand up scrum. The idea was to tire out your opponent, they really had a good go of it. They then spend the evening in the beer tent.This was a 3 day event with battles 2 times a day. The women either pretended to be men and shoot things and wield the huge pikes, follow on as water carriers or wander about as camp followers , again in frumpy clothes, but apparently in the evening they wear the satin and velvet gowns. For those who don't like fighting there were "living history" folk as well and they pitched tents and pretended to be herbalists, etc.

They travel all over Uk and Europe doing this, one man we spoke to retired 4 years early to follow the battles. They are all very proud of their home made shoes and weldeed glasses etc. There is a big tent , caravan village next tot he battle where you can get a nice burger and chips and a coke or beer etc and all the mod cons of camping.

We had a look around the castle saw the cell where King Edward was killed, a lot of Francis Drakes furniture as he was a friend of the family ( who still live in the castle. )