I was invited by Steve Hemphill to join the a'Plaisance, Ltd., team in a jousting demonstration at the 19th annual PumpkinFest held on Saturday, Oct. 15 from noon to 5 p.m. at Paschall Park, 1001 New Market Road in Mesquite, Texas. It is a family-friendly event that features a community stage with performances, kids’ activity area, Birds of Prey shows, vendor booths, contests, carnival food, trick-or-treating, and, best of all, the public jousting demonstration. The demonstration opened with a friendly skills at arms competition in full armour. Each rider took a turn ...
In July 2022, I joined a team of American jousters in an international tournament at the Château de Sainte Croix Grand Tonne, a 14th-century chateau in the basse-Normandie region of France. The American team was comprised of Steve Hemphill, Galen Bevel, and Robert Odekirk, all of Texas, and Jonathan Garrigues of Washington. The French tenons were Xavier de Gonneville (Xavier Fauvel), Perceval de Galles (Jean-Pierre Duprat), Phillipe de Sainte-Sauveur (Phillipe Van Den Broeck), Hervé du Portuais (Hervé Badouard), and Jérôme de Marylou ...
"History comes alive in Collingsworth County" reports the Red River Sun as Wellington hosted its first living history weekend on October 8 and 9, 2021, at Powell Park. The event was organized by members of Sons of Confederate Veterans Charles Goodnight, Frontier Regiment Camp 2280. Hundreds of students from area schools arrived by the busload throughout the day on Friday and rotated through several presentations representing different time periods, including the American Civil War, Native American history, and the late medieval period of Europe. ...
"Witness history come alive" as Collingsworth County hosts its first living history weekend on October 8 and 9, 2021, at Powell Park in Wellington, Texas. The event is being organized by members of Sons of Confederate Veterans Charles Goodnight, Frontier Regiment Camp 2280. Former resident Lonnie Colson will demonstrate what life was like for a 15th-century English knight on campaign. U.S. Army Indian War impersonators will appear along with the Dancing Eagles of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. There will be a chili cookoff and history symposium on Saturday. ...
Among practitioners of historical reenactment, there seems to be a never-ending experimentation involved with wearing maille under armour. The wearer's tastes evolve; their style of armour changes; the rules governing simulated combat are updated; issues such as comfort or weight become more important with age and experience. Perhaps it is entirely a modern phenomenon, as the majority of the aforementioned are somewhat trivial, while self-preservation on the battlefield was likely the most important consideration of the medieval ...
It started innocently enough. I bought a nice riveted mail standard, or collar, made from 6mm blackened mild steel rings from Mark Hale at Cap-a-pie. It came without a liner or method of closure. I commissioned a hinge clasp designed by Josh Davis of Davis Reproductions, based on period artwork and surviving examples, and stitched my own lining from a couple layers of linen and topped it with red leather. However, it still needed something to set it apart, so I decided to add a couple rows of brass rings. It was a very ...