Meeting The Hampshire Medievals.

Whilst taking a look around the Hampshire Wood Fair in the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, i had the pleasure to meet Wayne Letting, who, when not doing his normal day to day job, is known as whitgar, a 6th or 7th century clan leader of the Weorod.

This is Wayne in his full historically correct clothing of the period .... And the gold clothing catches were, i'm told, made from real gold.

Also at the Hampshire Wood Fair were the rest of the Medieval family, who when not trying to knock each others heads off in a re-enactment show of a battle scene, were telling the visitors about medieval life in the 6th and 7th centuries, with displays of cookery, woodcraft and cloth making, as well as the fighting weapons which look scarily real, even close up.

Here is the cooking area ... and yes, they did eat the food, made to medieval recipes.

Whilst the men traded goods, hunted, and took care of their weapons, the women of medieval times were getting on with the work of making clothes, weaving and more ...

 

Then of course, there were the really scary blokes who took great delight in showing the crowds just how tough it was to be a medieval warrior. Times were tough and sometimes brutal, and the weapons used in the re-enactment were real enough and just as dangerous. But these guys have obviously put in a great deal of practice and gave a good show in fighting skills to those who watched, and no one came to any harm ... i promise.

 

The guys here took a great deal of time and effort to get the image just right, and looking at them takes you right back to medieval times if you let your imagination take over. The level of detail was outstanding and the fighting scenes were quite rough and realistic.

 

 

If you ever get the chance to see these guys do what they do, i would heartily recommend it to you. A lot can be learned from watching them go about their early medieval lives, and they do their very best to do it as accurately as possible. You can visit their website HERE.