29th March (Palm Sunday), Towton, North Yorkshire

TOWTON BATTLEFIELD ANNIVERSARY EVENT

The day after the BattleDay I was up to Yorkshire for the annual Towton Battlefields Society Palm Sunday event.

This year was special in that (and notwithstanding the changes in the calendar since the 15th Century) the anniversary (29th March) actually fell on Palm Sunday (as it did in 1461 and which is the traditional Sunday on which the TBS host the annual commemoration).

I was up with the Northampton Battlefields Society and we were in the windy barn ...

I have tagged some of the other exhibitors ...

The Battlefields Trust and the Scottish Battlefields Trust were there, as were battlefields Societies from Stamford Bridge, Tewkesbury, Northampton as well as Towton and others, plus some period traders and arms dealers and Societies including the Lance & Longbow ... battle themed and Wars of the Roses themed, mostly.

We were supporting the heritage message, showing the cannonball pictures and displaying the battlefield model

(Northampton 1460 on show at the Towton Palm Sunday event 2015)

In many ways what was started at Northampton on July 10th 1460 was finished 8 months later on Palm Sunday at Towton in the bloodiest battle on English soil.

Here's a chilly model of the Battle of Towton with its dusting of snow (using Peter Pig figures)

(Towton 1461)

And the Lance & Longbow Society had a participation game going of the Battle of Hexham

(Hexham 1464)

Outside there was a good turn out of Living History and Reenactors ... I was particularly pleased with the guns which seem to match the bore of the piece that fired the shot found at Northampton.

Here's one of their slightly oversized rounds (so it can't actually be inadvertently loaded whilst chatting) alongside Northampton's real one (that is smashed by the impacts following its firing) ..

So you get the idea of the size of ball shot at Northampton ... small by Napoleonic standards but capable of smashing men horses and masonry.

It will be splendid to get one of these guns down to Delapre and have it fire again.   I can see it now, by the Eleanor Cross, on the anniversary of the battle, firing a salute ...

(commemorating Northampton 1460 ... an image from the 2013 evening walk)

Something to aspire to.

Otherwise outside the were some scenes being recreated ...

At the end of the afternoon the blustery day was clear enough to allow a visit to the field of conflict itself ... 

(Towton battlefield ... the main action)

(Towton battlefield ... the sun dipping down as we overlook Cock Beck where much of the slaughter occurred) 

Many thanks to our hosts and volunteers.  A grand day out for all and well worth noting in your diary for next year if you haven't been - it'll be on Palm Sunday.

After the massive victory at Towton, Edward, whose men had been first over the rampart at Northampton was crowned King Edward IV but the issues of the Cousins War were far from settled.

Northampton 1460 on Facebook

Towton Battlefield Society

1st-2nd October, Derby

WORLD WARGAMES, DERBY 2011

Phew what a scorcher.

A beautiful weekend and the atrium of Derby University's Kedlestone campus lets you enjoy all that sunshine.

I really like these bright, open venues - though I understand some areas got a bit warm. The Bring & Buy was not pleasant during the quiet time when I popped up, and I have heard from more than one source of people just leaving it because the fragrance got eye-watering.

It's a bit sad when you consider that the people who clear up the facilities probably associate all of us with the hygiene problems of a determined minority.

(The Elephant In The Room: a lively bunch of youngsters take on the elephant)

The Society of Ancients stand was an oasis of freshness of course - even if we were reprising our successful The Elephant in the Room. New this year we had the deluxe (if that encompasses cutting up the cards yourself) published version of the game for people who liked it to take away. And many did.

Although the show seemed fairly quiet at times, the Participation game was busily played, off and on, throughout the weekend - and was still active by mid afternoon on Sunday (at a time when many a northern show is breaking up).

(TEITR: scenes from a Society Participation game)

Many thanks to Graham for steadfastly manning the game all weekend and entertaining so many participants young and old. I'm sure there were some seeds of inspiration sown amongst some of the younger participants.

There were quite a few other ancients games out at Derby.

(Yorkshire, Palm Sunday 1461: The Rather Large Towton Project)

I was pleased to get a good look at the tiny but massive Towton game. I understand some infilling has raised the figure count to 18,000 now. 18,000? Is that possible? They are very small.

(like someone said .... the faasands of 'em ...)

It is a great project - and they play it too (Poleaxed II) ...
(The Rather Large Towton blog)

I'll also include a couple of shots of the 6mm Trebbia game. (The Battle of the Trebbia, 218 BC, Northern Italy)

(the game was being played using 'Impetus')

I thought this was a great example of what small scale wargames can do: visually much more manageable than many a sprawling 28mm monster. I think this ticks a lot of boxes.

Our level was (excepting our 54mm game) a mix of 6, 10 and 28mm (perhaps some of it due to the proximity of Pendraken and Baccus ...?), all of them good. Again, I like the way smaller scales can capture the whole battlefield ...
(10mm Operation Brevity)

A pity that that section of road was knocked out of line ...

(6mm Gettysburg participation game: no monuments, but you can still make out Cemetery Ridge)

And I know some of you wouldn't want me to miss the big Warlord Games/Hail Caesar Romans bash (so here's a picture) ...


The Sedgemoor game I featured in the The Other Partizan was on show again. I got to chat to the presenters about the battle, which is nicely presented and about as good as sprawling 28 gets. They were happy to explain things, so thumbs up for that, too.
(Vienna 1683)

Back to the small but spectacular, I thought this 6mm Vienna 1683 game again came out a winner. I love that painted background: I really must think in terms of getting round three sides allows some extra visual options on side 4 (I used a mirror behind the City in Welcome to Jerusalem all those years ago - but I can imagine doing it differently now ....) ...

(close look at some of the Ottoman forces)

It is a truly remarkable scale, these days ... just in the photos, I can clearly see the Turkish cavalry, the characteristic Janissary caps etc.

Of course, a lot of this is down to Derby's atrium letting all that sunlight in. I think some of these smaller sale games would suffer badly in the more muted light of, say, Kelham Hall's Dome (where the Sedgemoor game was a real eye catcher).

(another look at some of the soldiers at Sedgemoor)

The Society had a reasonable weekend, including recruiting that magic new member whose decision means - as Shows North - we have recruited more members this year than in the whole of 2010 (so a big thank you to all the Shows volunteers: not only have you made a great contribution to keeping ancient and medieval warfare alive in people's minds, you have also helped the Society of Ancients keep head up in this age of the Internet).

Add to that some very nice shopping and an evening out at a Jazz event to see a long-standing friend's daughter play trumpet and you are getting close to a perfect weekend.

That said, nobody gave us a prize for winning anything this week ... so I guess it's situation normal really.

Very good show, Derby. Lots of good traders. Plenty of new products and lots of deals on offer. Lots of games to join in or inspire (a great collection in my camera - and they were just the ones I liked ...) ...

Thanks. I'm now looking forward to SELWG and then the DBA English Open.

Join the Society of Ancients (here)
Get a copy of A Domino Double Header (here)
Look forward to SELWG (here)
Get details on the DBA English Open (here)

Plenty of scope to get involved there ...

Fancy helping out at Fiasco? Recon? Wargamer? Drop me a line ...