Where are the reenactment groups

[Squire Pipewell]

Forgive my naivety but I am very new to this scene. My good lady and I have recently attended the ILHF and today have been to TORM. We found both events fascinating and walked around enthralled by all the amazing things for sale. We were often asked by the traders "which era do you do" and to our slight embarrassment we said we don't we are just here because we are interested in history. We would however be very interested to learn more about the various reenactment groups to see if this is something that we would like to get involved with but apart from a couple of societies at ILHF we couldnt really find out anything about the various societies and groups that must exist across the Country. I wondered why this might be, I guess it could be cost, so I wondered if the organisers of these two shows had ever had a simple large display board where such groups could put up say an a4 poster for free to promote themselves - after all the more members there are of groups the more trading will be done etc. But a question to the forum - is there a really good web site that might have a set of links to such groups that I could go to to find out more about what they do, where they meet etc.

Thanks

Squire Pipewell

[sally]

There are literally hundreds of groups around the country covering everything from prehistory to WW2, so possibly one approach might be to let us know what general region you are in, and if you have any particular periods of history that have special appeal Armed with that, you may well get invites from some local groups to go and say hello

[scotti]

its always good to get a fresh viewpoint, i started reenactment after attending a history fayre with the sole intent in finding a reenactment group to join, how many other people have slipped through the net. A missed opportunity perhaps? By the way i do Roman with Colchester Roman Society and Cohors 1 Bavatorum.

[Squire Pipewell]

Thanks for the replies. We are in North Warwickshire. In terms of which era, I guess the Tudor period is the one that we would probably favour but I think if there was a group reasonably close to us that covered another period then we would certainly be interested in finding out more.

[Gail Horn]

Try this site: http://www.histrenact.co.uk/
David keeps a huge database of re enactment groups and other useful bits of information.

[Marcus Woodhouse]

And a google search will give about 5,000,000 pages.

[latheaxe]

Quite a lot of groups about.You will probably find that whatever group you decide to join there will be quite a bit of travel involved..Good luck with your search..

[Squire Pipewell]

You are quite right, 5 million listings on Google but I thought contacting the good folk on this forum would be a wiser way to find out. And it has certainly proved to be so, I have had a number of kind people send me PM's with very constructive and helpful advice and some useful links to other sites etc. Many thanks to them all.

[Brian la Zouche]

[quote="Gail Horn"]Try this site: http://www.histrenact.co.uk/
David keeps a huge database of re enactment groups and other useful bits of information.[/quote]

very good site apart from the loads of dead links, ( and dead societys) shame they dont have a ''report a broken link'' thats easy to use

[Gail Horn]

I'll be seeing David on Sunday in theory, so I'll mention that to him and see what he can do.

[histrenact]

Try this site: http://www.histrenact.co.uk/
David keeps a huge database of re enactment groups and other useful bits of information.

very good site apart from the loads of dead links, ( and dead societys) shame they dont have a ''report a broken link'' thats easy to use

Hello Brian,

Yep. Am doing some whole site peroidic maintenence at the moment for the dead liks and details. I do periodically email every contact at the site to checktheses things as well.

There is a "dead link" function on the site which was used quite a bit in the early days in the mid 90s but it is very easy to make this more visable and I'll do that

Thanks for the feedback.

Take care

David D.

[Brian la Zouche]

its a brill site loads of info on there, so please dont take it as a negitive comment, its just as i recall when checking out societys, many had dead links, ill look harder for the report a broken/ dead link next time, like i said GREAT SITE, very usefull

[Graham Cooley]

Try contacting Harvington Hall. Quite close to you and they have their own household.

Graham
www.bagotsregiment.co.uk

[Langley]

There is probably something for everyone in the midlands as a while. Some societies like ours are made up of renegades from other societies and no longer geographically based. We tend to come togehter for events and the odd AGM plus make and mends. We don't do much by way of thumping each other with big bits of metal anymore so no battle practice. We do do archery and gunning and train new folks when public are not around. Gloucester Household (AKA Company Ecorcheur) are of course holed up in Warwick Castle if you fancy Wars of the Roses and bashing people with bills and swords.
We are also WOTR period www.wythe-retinue.org.uk. Harvington Hall mob for Tudor are a gereat bunch. They have been known to play Mediaeval too when they feel like it. See if you can make it to Ludlow Mediaeval Fair this weekend - there will be lots of fairly local mediaeval groups represented and you will get to see some of the best entertainers and specialists around like Hautbois who are fantastic musicians as are Nonymous - must add that or Phil and Julia wont speak to me. It is a good opportuity to see what a friendly bunch re-enactors are as a whole. Groups take on a family feel. It is best to meet people and get to know them to see which family you want to be adopted by! Wear a big "Hello, I want to be a re-enactor" badge so we know who you are at Ludlow!

[Squire Pipewell]

That sounds like a great idea, we will try to get there on Saturday and have a chat with as many folk as we can. Good tip, cheers.

[bonnacon]

Squire P - PM sent

[ForTheMarshal]

We have groups in Birmingham and Leicester you might want to try out.
11th to 13th C.
Chance to do Byzantine and Muslim stuff as well as the more widely covered western.
Click the massive icon in my signature for our website.

If that's of interest, drop me a PM and I'll give you the details of whichever group is easier to get to.

[Bad Viking]

We are Northamptonshire based - not a million miles away from anywhere really !!

If you like Crusade / Holy Orders !! we also do Dark Age - and we go abroad and we also trade - below is or Hospitaller site,

http://hospitallers.webs.com/