The British Plate Armour Society March 2005 newsletter

Greetings all,

Hope you have all had a good Christmas and new year, and the armour is all cleaned and polished ready for the next seasons battling. I visited Dave Woodward recently to use his workshop and mine is now very shinny, so that will make a nice target for the 1st show!

This is a quick initial news sheet to let you know what's going on and a few bits of news. There will be another one later when more show dates are available.

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Shows

We've show dates coming at us thick and fast, and attached you will find the list. Not got full details on all of them yet, and more will come in I'm sure, so expect more either in future newsletters or by direct broadcasts. If you  plan to attend any of them just let me know in the usual ways (e-mail, snail mail, form on the website, phone, SMS, carrier pigeon, note tied to arrow, ...), I can then make sure further details get to you. As usual monitor the website where more details will be posted as soon as they are available, if you are not on the web, don't worry you will get details send as necessary, although it dosn't hurt to stay in touch, so feel free to phone with questions or to get an update.

Parties and Events

Pre-season party/practice. Saturday March 26th 2005: As mentioned in the last news sheet I am holding a pre-season party at my place in Chippenham. All welcome, bring bottle's, plenty of crashing space, but bring things to lie on and sleep in.  Garden space for tents if necessary, although may be a bit cold for that. If there's a hoard I'll put up my medieval tent for extra gathering and crashing space. Contact me to let me your coming  and for directions.

As this is Easter, and in lieu of a show, I've decided to expand the scope a bit and turn it into a bit of a bash/practice as well, So turn up any time after 13:00 for practice and training in the garden, drinking and partying to start whenever you want :). Also anyone willing (and capable!) is free to do more on the Sunday, that may or may not include myself.

Sword workshops. A few members have attended some of the exiles sword workshops over the winter, these have covered the techniques of Fiore Dei Liberi, using both single handed and two handed sword and  have been fun and informative. If you are interested in any future ones let me know, they are planning one of April, and another later in the year, but no dates yet. Obviously those who have attended will be only to happy to "show" anyone interested the new techniques they have picked up :)

The Society Encampment

As you will all know our Medieval Encampment has been growing steadily over the last few years. With the addition of Deborah and Silvias tent last year, and Ron now getting one we will have four main tents, plus Dave (Two tents) woodwards extra small one. There is also an awning that can be used and a couple of small soldiers tents. I think everyone will agree that this is very good for the society and adds a lot to our displays, as well as being useful at the large shows for gathering round.

However, there is one small problem in that the load in providing, maintaining and transporting most of  this is down to a few individuals, who are mostly all at maximum capacity now. We would like to expand the encampment, but spread the load a bit and hence want to encourage anyone willing, and able, to acquire items of encampment equipment to supplement the tents. They can then bring these along for use in the encampment at shows. The sort of things we are thinking about, are: chairs, stools (doesn't hurt to have your own), tables, benches, chests, braziers for the fire, cooking stuff (cauldrons, tripod etc), lanterns and holders, Pavise shields, stakes, basically anything that could be used in the encampment. Obviously many of you do have a few bits like this that you already bring along  but there's plenty of room for more.

So even if you don't have a medieval tent, have a look at how much space you have in your car normally and think about what else you could bring for use in the encampment, if you aren't sure what to get then just get in touch with me or Dave woodward. It doesn't matter if people get the same things, as duplicates don't hurt and if one person can't make a show hopefully the other can.

Membership Renewals

Kit

Boots: Mike Seymour has now started making boots and boot wraps for members. These are very good, and excellent value, if you haven't got any proper medieval boots then well worth considering getting some from him. Even if you have modern-ish boots that generally do, then still consider getting a pair for those shows where we have to up the kit level.  Details from Mike are:

Re-enactor for Re-enactors. Maker of :

• "Economy priced, Authentic style, soft leather hand-stitched, medieval shoes and boots". Prices from £25.00.
• "Modern shoe/boot complete over-wrap covers, in soft leather hand-stitched, authentic medieval style". Prices from £10.00.

These are just the sort of cheap footwear that the average lower level, medieval soldier or lower class, (not necessarily peasant) civilian would knock up,  I first got the pattern from a 15th century engraving of an Archer, and I just zoomed in on his footwear.

On a related note, if you can make or provide equipment or clothing to other members then let me know. Give me details, rough costs and contact details and I can  will put it on the market page of the web-site.

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Well, that's all for now. Look forward to seeing you all at a show soon.

   Baron Edmund De Thorpe

            (aka Craig Nicholas)

P.S. If you are getting this in snail mail you are not on my membership list as having an e-mail address, if you do actual have one then please let me know. All these details are available on our website (www.britishplate.org.uk), and are sent electronically to those with e-mail, which saves us a fair bit in paper, stamps and time.