Just received this message from Llyr Emyr Roberts who joined Newcastles for the first time at Lamport Hall over the late May Bank Holiday weekend.
“I would first like to thank you all for allowing me to join the fold and getting stuck in with the festivities, this sort of stuff is something I’ve been wanting to get into for a good while, and I couldn’t have asked for a friendlier group for me to be joined into.
Everybody’s so enthusiastic and welcoming, which made it very easy for me to fit in. As well as having a real passion for making it so authentic and immersive as possible. Everybody was so knowledgeable and were happy to teach me their tips and tricks so I wasn’t completely useless out on the field. Being out in the field, mind you, was beautiful synchronised chaos. People played to their rolls and expected that of myself, which made playing my part almost instinctual. It was the perfect balance of hard physical graft as well as solid teamwork, a lot more physically demanding than I first anticipated (which I loved!) coming off the field with some bumps and bruises but with the BIGGEST smile on my face. Closest thing you could get to a real battle without the risk of any serious injury added with running cavalry encircling us, cannon fire (like ACTUAL cannon fire) from our rear and multiple ranks of musket firing between us, a fully immersive experience.
What I also loved was that the festivities were not kept only to the field. At our ‘encampment’ back on the camp site the energy was still very much carried on. A warm welcome from all with a good knees up, good stories from previous musters being shared as well as conversations on historical points around the regiment itself. Of course with MANY a few raised glasses to celebrate, perhaps a bit too many raised for myself on the first night.
Obviously a few well earned bumps and bruises have been gathered from my first muster. But now when they ache they only remind of beautiful memories, who knew it felt so good to hurt haha. Honestly though the experience would only have been half as good if it wasn’t for everybody within the regiment. And again I just want to thank them all for giving me the opportunity. I’ve well and truly caught battalion bug and eagerly looking forward to many more memories in the future, as well as putting the word out for any other enthusiasts who are equally warmed by my stories.
I literally have nothing bad to say about my experience, honestly. Even the enemy soldiers were kind-hearted with friendly banter during battles”
There has been a brief hiatus, apologies, no one quite knows what happened to 2023 and I would try and give a recap of that but there’s been another season since then and it’s a very vague distant memory! So we will crack on with the 2024 roundup!
I made a concerted effort this year to attend as many musters as holidays and logistics allowed, so it’s been a busy May to September!
We were lucky this year and there were a variety to attend!
Nantwich at the end of January starts the year as we help them celebrate Holly Holy Day. It’s sort of mid-off season and a welcome distraction to dissipate the “January Blues” (Editor – Pre-season unfriendly…)
Due to prior commitments, I did not make the actual march or mini battle (something I’m now becoming adept at because it’s generally cold and wet and has even been known to snow in prior years!) However, we always have a regimental meal so that we can get our fix of each other after roughly 3 months off! It was held this year and as usual the food was good, the company second to none and the alcohol flowed! I would love to give you more information but as I spent the latter half of the night trying to recruit bouncers at the various Nantwich nightclubs, we’ll leave it at that!
The season properly kicked off with the Early May Bank Holiday at Much Marcle… more affectionately known as “Mud Marcle”. As the name suggests, despite love being all around as we rejoiced in seeing both new and old faces it was WET WET WET.
We had a lot of fun playing with the cameo press ganged farmers and stealing their apples! Linda and Alex had a lot of fun covering us in fake blood to complete our role in this… So much so the medics were genuinely perturbed that we all seemed to have some major injuries!
The musket complained about their powder being claggy, we ravaged the beer tent, and sang a few songs. All in all, a brilliant start to the season… Despite all having to be towed off!
We also welcomed Caleb into the ranks of pike… in which he has excelled, but couldn’t quite hack the post-battle celebrations!
Next up was Scampston Hall for the late May Bank holiday. A welcome destination for the Northern contingent after a spree of southern musters over the past few years.
The weather had picked up and the cobwebs had been blown away. We were definitely back!
Newcastles turned out in force! Twiggy brought the regimental campfire and we had a jolly time passing the port and having a good old catch up.
The battle we were recreating here was the battle of Marston Moor. For anyone who has brushed up on their history of the Newcastles regiment will know, this is where they took their last stand and refused all quarter. I’m sure Simon can tell you the full story if you have the inclination. We did our bit and took to the field to do our best acting as we heroically defended our ditch! John may have taken this slightly too literally as we nearly missed our moment of glory carrying him off the field after he twisted his ankle! Thankfully we made it back in time to be suitably deaded by the parliament cavalry; ably lead by Meat’s wife Hannah who I think found it a smidge too enjoyable!
I may have imbibed slightly more than anticipated as is wont to happen in such situations and now have a lovely collection of selfies from those assembled as they passed my phone round the circle whilst I had a disco nap! I am not mean enough to share them to the World Wide Web, however I am happy to show them to anyone should they ask!
Next on the agenda was our annual Marston Moor March. We were again invited back to camp and run the living history at the Long Marston Village Hall. They were again incredible! They really know how to look after you and it’s lovely to see the whole village really getting involved.
I had a slight mishap on the way over the Pennines on the Friday evening, in that the head gasket in my car blew! Thanks to a very lovely tow truck and a quick swap into my sister’s car I made it by midnight and after regaling the bar staff with my sorry tale, was treated to a rather large glass of wine! Much needed and appreciated!
On Saturday, we had our living history and some small drill displays that were well received and a lot of fun! On the Saturday night we had a regimental BBQ to celebrate some exciting birthdays, where some very questionable cocktails were drank!
Sunday meant the annual march. Thankfully this year it was the “short” march from Long Marston to the monument for our annual service, although we were slightly devastated our starting pub had closed down!
I love the moment of quiet reflection at the monument. It’s good to remember that whilst this to us is a hobby and we have a lot of fun doing it, what we are actually doing is keeping alive a piece of history that should not be forgotten. We think of wars as being faraway foreign things and trying to comprehend that this was on home soil and quite literally tore apart families and the country deserves every second of thought.
To ensure things did not become too morbid, we topped it off with a picnic to replenish us for the walk home!
If you look carefully at the pictures on the information board at the monument you may see some familiar faces…
Next up was the small but mighty Cheriton at the end of July! Probably one of the best musters I’ve been to and surprisingly with very little alcohol involved!
For those that don’t know Cheriton is very far south, nosebleed territory! Ellie had taken herself off to the Azores on a research trip (the trials and tribulations of having a marine biologist for a sister) and mum and dad were on holiday (how rude!) so it was the first time I had been fully flying solo (even Nick and Katrina were only day tripping due to the logistics).
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not averse to long drives (having been to university in Dundee, I’m an old hand) but driving alone is boring let’s not lie! Fortunately, one of the lovely ladies from Sir Marmaduke Rawdon’s Regiment of Foote was looking for a lift down from my neck of the woods… couldn’t have been more perfect! She just had to put up with me talking non stop for 4 hours! We made it with no issues, made good time and I was treated to a beautiful picky tea featuring a full roast chicken!
The Saturday dawned with beautiful sunshine. It was scripted so that we had a skirmish in the woods prior to the battle to recreate the real events of the time. Brilliant! Sounded like good fun!
How the mighty fall! Don’t get me wrong, the musket had a whale of a time and their skirmish amongst the trees looked and sounded amazing and by all accounts they had a great time! Pike on the other hand …. Let’s just put this into context… it’s impossible to play in low hanging trees with 12 foot sticks in your hand…it’s an issue! We had a lovely mile and a half march to do a bit of pointy pointy in the lane to march a mile and a half back … in baking sun! Now I love the sun … when I’m by a pool with a cocktail in my hand… but 3 miles with hobnails (studs in the bottom of your shoes) on concrete in Sahara heat … it’s not the one let me tell you!
Onto the battle itself! We were a small but perfectly formed block with only 9 of us (Two officers and 7 rank and file) we were supposed to be brigaded in (join their team) with Hawkins but as luck would have it on Parliament side the London Brigade were also small and perfectly formed so we got to play with them! Both sides fought valiantly, while a big block is a lot of fun, sometimes the small ones just take the cake!
Now our Regiment’s Commanding Officer Katrina is a musketeer by trade, but she has outdone herself this season by taking on a more leading role with the rabble that is Newcastles Pike (I jest we are obviously all upstanding gentlemen) despite a lot of the commands being the same (or very similar) there are some obvious differences between a pike and a musket. Apologies Katrina but my favourite part of this season has been being told to order our musket (to be at order is the sort of resting position for both pike and musket) – a lot – with whoever was Sergeant translating and passing the correct orders down chain. I digress but I promise there is a point!
After a pike push is finished the order to get us all back into appropriate ranks and files to go again is “Reform on your Colour” after one particularly brilliant bout an excitable CO told us to “Reload our muskets” to which our Sergeant of the day, Jacob, without missing a beat just quietly said in a very dead pan tone “Reform on the Colour” …. THIS WILL FOREVER BE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MEMORIES!
We had a very enjoyable en masse gate guard (where I met the love of my life but sadly didn’t get his surname or regiment) half of us toddled off to the beer tent where the wonderful folk band “Call Me Ishmael” were playing. We got there towards the latter end of the set where they were taking requests. Now my favourite song of all time is Recruiting Sergeant … they were convinced to play it twice and I was happy as a pig in the proverbial, singing at the top of my lungs. Along with other great songs. I went to bed very sober but very happy!
The next morning, the musketeers went off on their merry way to go bang at each other in the woods again whilst the pike block mutinied! Sorry, but with a battle and a 4-hour drive ahead of me I was not marching 3 miles again! We were in good company, only one solitary pikeman (from either army!) went and played with the musketeers! Great minds and all that!
The second day battle was much like the first, we played with London Brigade again and we saw some good action!
Then it was home time, another weekend well spent!
We then had a few weeks break, but I missed everyone to much and trotted myself across the Pennines to attend the Sheffield Distillery open day! A perfect way to support members of the regiment whilst having great gin, cocktails, pies and chocolate with good friends!
That nicely brings us to the Battle of Cropredy Bridge in Oxfordshire, the final Major of the season on the August Bank Holiday.
The Saturday was a bit different, with the Society AGM in the morning! Special mention to those Lambs who received promotions, medals, and election to the Sealed Knot board of directors over the weekend – especially Tig!!! We are all so proud and thankful to know such wonderful people and have them ensuring our hobby can continue for many years to come.
We then did what we do best, found the local pubs and did the tour! The day was topped off by the phenomenal Debjani (with help from her sous chefs) quite literally feeding the 5,000 with the most delicious curry ever to be eaten! With my tummy pleasantly full, I had an early night.
I have an admission … I was a turncoat, a TRAITOR!
In real life I have a horse and horse riding is my passion. Now Hannah rides for Sir William Waller’s Regiment of Horse, which is Parliaments Cavalry Regiment. Now fortunately for me on the second day there was a spare horse. I was told if I got myself up and across to horse lines to help and introduce myself on the Sunday morning there was the chance I could do my cavalry test and potentially have a chance to ride on the Monday.
I was up with the larks on Sunday morning and presented myself to help fetch in, brush and tack up. (Help get them ready to the lay person).
I scooted myself back for Army Drill where there was a beautiful send off for one of of the late greats and readied myself for the battle with no one any the wiser.
It was a good day at the office. I shimmied myself to the front row and wouldn’t let anyone take that away from me! I grinned my way into the pushes and despite some belting bruises, loved every second of it …. Sorry lads Alan’s found her favourite position …. Front and centre of course!
We had our own regimental meeting that evening where we kept everyone lubricated with a delicious cocktail (recipe stolen from the Sheffield Distillery open day) and I, conscious of the fact that I potentially had a horse-riding test in the morning, took myself off to bed at a decent hour in relatively good nick!
Monday dawned … the excitement was real! With a jaunty wave and a “I’ll be back to pike I probably won’t be riding today just doing my test” (with my fingers crossed behind my back) I trotted over to horse lines.
The very lovely Sammy took me out along with a couple of the others to go through some basic drill and get the tickle out of her very excitable steed Ben. I rode a rather lovely little guy called Sam. I obviously didn’t disgrace myself in the ride out in the morning as I was invited to ride Sam in the battle! After hurriedly borrowing Cavalry gear, I was all set!
We did a small cameo through the village and saw off the Royalist musket. Then it was time for the battle proper!
It was BRILLIANT. I mean, I’m not a total convert but it’s definitely something I would love to do again!
Although I wasn’t able to “draw my sword” as I have not yet passed my sword test, the thrill of it all was not diminished at all! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
The only thing was, after almost 4 hours in the saddle my legs had given up on me!! The stiffness was immediate and worse than two days of piking … and I only did it for one day! Hats off to the Cavalry they are some lads!! Huge thank you to them for having me!!!
After putting away the horses and hobbling back to camp, I had to endure (the admittedly partially deserved) ribbing about being a traitor … it’s all good fun!
It was then time to load up and go home the season “proper” had come to an end.
A few sensible people had opted to stay the Monday night and do the beer tent quiz but I am not one of those sensible ones and had used all my holidays so home and back to work Tuesday!
All in all, what can I say …. Another FANTASTIC season!
We do have a few small gatherings over the winter months with the Sheffield Manor Lodge display and Ripple but essentially the White Coats are back in the wardrobe until Nantwich 2025.
So, with that, I am super excited to see you all next year! Hopefully with some new faces as well as old for some more 17th Century fun!!
It looks like the global pandemic is slowly starting to fall behind us and the Sealed Knot was back all guns blazing (quite literally!)
Our regiment (Newcastle’s Regiment of Foote) have attended various events over the last few years but nothing on the scale of a full size August Bank Holiday Muster and we were excited.
We packed up our cars, tents, caravans, campervans and minivans, sallied forth to Compton Verney, and arrived at a masterfully organised event by Skippon’s Regiment.
Day 1 – Friday Evening
Ellie and I arrived in semi darkness at 9pm (we had decided to book Tuesday off, not the Friday – SMART) Thankfully we have very obliging (retired) parents who arrived earlier in the day and kindly put up our tents and had dinner on the table ready and waiting. The sky was clear, the stars were shining bright and we knew we were in for a treat!
First things first I hit the beer tent – the only place to find the majority of the regiment after 8pm. Having been conspicuous in my absence since August Bank Holiday 2018 due to various commitments, I was slightly apprehensive.
Obviously, being part of Newcastles, it might as well have been yesterday since I saw everyone and the welcome I received was second to none.
I was back with my family and any niggling doubts I may have had were completely gone by the time I had finished my first pint of Bath Gem from the superb Stagger Inn.
This applies not only to our Regiment but the Newcastles Tercio as a whole. In my obviously very unbiased opinion, we are the friendliest bunch around!
Day 2 – Saturday
There was no battle on Saturday due to the Society AGM, we pulled ourselves together at a godforsaken hour to trudge to the Beer Tent and relieve our hangovers with copious amounts of coffee and hash browns, while trying to pay attention to a meeting for an hour.
After a (long) afternoon nap it was drill time.
After a 4 year absence a majority of the commands came back to me, however, even now differentiating between ranks & files and right & left still remain a complete mystery. Thankfully, there were a few fresh recruits and I wasn’t the only rusty one, so after 20 mins of going back to basics we got to the “pack in” stage of pike drill.
For those of you who haven’t experienced a pike push, imagine a rugby scrum with approximately 15/16 people on each side holding 16 foot sticks.
The object is not to protect a ball but to gain ground. This is done by quite literally ramming your opponents with as much strength as you can find!
The ranks are important, the front rank have to be superhumanly strong to hold up the rest of the block and stop the whole thing collapsing before we had even hit our opponents but also agile and flexible to get down low underneath the opposing side to lift them off their feet, making the block weaker and easier for us to move.
The second rank have to be just as strong as they hold up the front rank and push them forwards into the enemy.
The middle ranks add weight and strength, and the back few ranks provide the “drive”.
It was magical! We finished drill on a real high. We were tight and the drive from behind was of a quality we had hereto only dreamed about!
WE WERE READY!
Now for an early night ready for the big day…………HA IMAGINE.
I definitely contributed a few pounds to the Beer Tent’s profits. Then, after a sing-song in Tig’s awning, I decided it wasn’t bedtime and after Morgaine from Gerard’s provided us with a beautiful song I happily followed her to their campfire to carry on the drinking & singing.
It was well south of 12am when I staggered back to my tent!
Day 3 – Sunday – Battle Day 1
The day dawned and the sun was shining.
The battle times were earlier due to weddings at the big house, musket had to draw powder at 9am, luckily being a pikeman, we had an extra hour in bed.
After a bacon sandwich to try and stave off the dawning hangover, I climbed into my breeches and white coat, found my pike and off we went.
The Newcastles Regiment of Foote had not been formed when the battle of Edgehill occurred, so we didn’t have our blue Scotch Bonnets, but the Musket block made up for it with a wide variety of splendid hats!
After the naughty Parliamentarian Cavalry had stolen the King’s standard along with his standard bearer’s hand (as happened in the real battle – although it was recovered from the field by the Royalists) we got going.
We were on fire, we won a majority of the pushes and even our block commander didn’t have many comments in the after battle team talk.
The only casualties were my shoe and my pike, and a mild vomit as the hangover crept in on the last few pushes!
After a nap, some camp fun with the younger generation and some chilli, we headed back to the beer tent and we broadly repeated the events of the previous evening although I was in bed by the much more reasonable time of 1am!
Day 4 – Monday – Battle Day 2
I woke up much more refreshed and with even more enthusiasm, still on a high after the successes from the previous day.
I meandered down to watch my dad and Dan practicing their sword fighting skills, and I took in the views of the house and the bridge which were amazing.
I even caught some of the newer musketeers practicing their live firing.
Shortly after, armed with a new pair of latchets and some fresh socks, off we marched down the big hill for the second day.
I didn’t think it would be possible, but we outdid ourselves on the second day. Even tired and flagging after 2 days of battle against some very strong blocks (Ballards – we salute you gentlemen!) we kept it together and again came out the victors of many pushes (although we did slightly more ring-a-ring-a-roses than the day before).
Off back up the big hill we dragged ourselves, with the Beer Tent shining its warm beery light from the top to be rewarded by a nice cold ale.
Then all too soon it was over.
We all begrudgingly packed up our cars, tents, caravans, campervans and minivans to begin the journey home.
After allowing 7 million hours to say goodbye to everyone we were finally on our way.
My remaining words are this:
WHAT A BELTING WAY TO END THE SEASON I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING OLD FACES AND NEW IN THE YEAR AHEAD!
By Alan – Pikeman, His Excellency The Marquess of Newcastle’s Regiment of Foote
What a brilliant day! I had high hopes for my first battle with Newcastle’s Regiment, but even they were surpassed by the friendliness and camaraderie of everyone I met. Plus the battle felt truly epic -friends who saw the pics said it looked like a movie! I joined up by myself (and didn’t know anyone!), but was never without people to talk with, and had some great conversations throughout the day.
I was loaned pretty much the full uniform, and soon looked and felt every inch the 17th century soldier. The march through the packed town centre made you feel like a celebrity – and even with just basic pike training, I managed to stay in line without dropping it or snagging a telephone wire.
Lining up for battle, with hundreds of reenactors, it was very exciting. Our pike block felt solid and ready for action after marching together. I was very glad for the core of long serving and confident troops.
Then it was time to attack – I’ll be honest, I was surprised (but happily!) just how physical the actual fighting was – all bunching up and smashing into another regiment of pikemen, then shoving until one side was pushed back (or someone fell over). The anticipation of the collision, and then shoving or being shoved was like your favourite team sport, but better! Muskets were firing on either side, through the smoke I don’t even remember seeing the crowd.
Parliament may have taken the day back in 1644, but we certainly felt like we had the better of it in 2019. In the evening we all went for a meal, and I got a chance to speak with other members who I hadn’t met on the field, or in the pub or town earlier. Everyone was lovely, and it was great to finish the night piled in a hotel room, still chatting – it was like a work Christmas party, but with more interesting people!
I have signed up for the year and will go to every event that I possibly can, I have a new best hobby. If you like history, dressing up, team activities, having a laugh and socialising, then you’ll love Newcastle’s Regimente of Foote. Yeah, I still ache 3 days later, and I was ready to play dead after about 40 minutes of back and forth, but I’d do it all again tomorrow!
Ben on the march thru’ Nantwich – Thanks to Photos by ABN
If like Ben, you’ve been thinking about giving re-enactment a go, head to our Joining Us page to find out how to get involved and make being a Newcastle your new venture for 2019.
As the Heatwave continued to scorch Britain, Newcastle’s turned up in relatively large numbers to Devon Park, Newark once again on the Friday afternoon and started to set up camp ready for what turned out to be a great weekend.
The advantage of going back to Newark again is having knowledge of the area and what to expect at the event. We were able to set up camp easily if a little squished in and get straight to the important things such as catching up with friends, having a few drinks and eating!
Last weekend, a number of the regiment headed to Pontefract Park again to take part in Wakefield Armed Forces Day. After the success of the event last year, we were very excited to be going back and setting up camp again.
Hello, hello! We’re back again after a bit of a blog hiatus, sorry about that! We’re all back on track and will be keeping you updated with what we get up to over the Summer.
Last weekend we all headed to the beautiful grounds of the Compton Verney Estate, just outside Kineton in Warwickshire for the first of our 375th Anniversary events, which you’ll see more and more of over the coming years. This weekend it was to re-enact the Battle of Edgehill which happened on the 23rd October 1642.
August Bank Holiday has rolled around for this year and once again it was our biggest event of the year. This year we were at the beautiful Scampston Hall in North Yorkshire and we had a wonderful weekend with a particularly memorable (or in some cases a little hazy!) cocktail party!
After the success of our event at Kenilworth Castle in May, and to repay the favour that our friends in Lisles regiment had done by coming to help out again and play our enemy once more, it was time for Newcastle’s to come and do their bit at Lisle’s own event at Helmsley Castle in North Yorkshire and what an excellent weekend it was!
