England revisited!
4th June 2022
Not having lived in the UK for 30 years, we decided to think of the place as a foreign country and explore it with the eyes of outsiders. For indeed, the England that we find ourselves in now is not the England that we left in 1991. More about that in some future blog, but for now let's consider how the English spend their free time. The English have a long tradition of dressing up in costumes and putting on amateur theatre productions or making music with like-minded friends. And their love of history is evident in the number of re-enactment societies. So when we saw a poster for the Colchester Medieval Fayre, we knew we should check it out.
When we saw the stall holders and performers in costume, it sometimes wasn't clear exactly what the 'medieval' period was. There were those in Tudor costumes but also groups of Goths and even a lady dressed as a toadstool! But at least the sound of music blowing on the wind gave the right atmosphere to the occasion. The Colchester Waits Renaissance Band (shown below) produced a delightfully evocative sound.
This gentleman was playing jolly delicate tunes on a dulcimer. He is Damian Clarke and we bought one of his CDs 'The River Wherever' for the soundtrack to Lawrence's video of today's events.
Another set of performers were acting out a morality play about a fox chasing a cock. It was a very lively performance, added by young children acting as chicks with their mother hen.
Later in the afternoon, the centre stage went to the knights in shining armour! Naturally, there was the evil devious black knight fighting the honourable gentlemen of the day.
The last show we watched was a demonstration of falconry. When they released the brown peregrine falcon it flew straight into the tall trees surrounding the arena. It would not behave and its presence attracted a lot of seagulls. Then it was time to see the white gyrfalcon in action. She was given a moving rabbit to catch and refused to let go so we could see her have another try.
The last major character of the day was Steve Payne. Today he was selling jewellery from a cart and he had to stay in character as a Ukrainian to have his trader's fee waved for the day. This gentleman has raised a lot of money for various causes and today he was helping Ukrainians. With his heavy mock Ukrainian accent, he told me how he had crossed the Alps on a space hopper, had ridden his penny farthing from London to Paris dressed in Victorian costume, and had walked barefoot from Southampton to Canterbury to raise money for the homeless. In his past life he had even played guitar on Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells II'. A truly inspirational gentleman.
So I will finish here with a collection of photos taken at the event to show you the variety of people celebrating the Medieval, and not so Medieval, world. There are basket weavers, archers, a blacksmith, a cider-maker, an arrow-maker, and many more. Clearly this is a world where you can live out your fantasies amongst like-minded people and develop skills and knowledge of historical life and events much better than you would ever do in a classroom.
