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!!
I love you all!
Yours in the Cause
Alan (a.k.a Alyssa)
Xx
