A COUPLE MORE FINDS OF INTEREST

I haven't been doing much gaming of any kind recently, bar the odd dabble with Lion Rampant and Warhammer, but I have been out metal detecting rather a lot, and son 2 and  have found loads of goodies, 2 of which are of a bellicose nature, so suit this blog.

 The first is a Civil War musket ball, which are a quite common metal detecting find, but this was our first and found on a new piece of land we have been allowed to detect on at the village of Monkton Farleigh near Bath. On July 3rd, Waller's army laid an ambush at Monkton Farleigh hoping to surprise and beat back Hopton's Royalist force advancing from Bradford-on-Avon. They sprung the ambush but were driven back to the ford in the valley below where a fierce fight ensued. This musket ball was probably fired or dropped on that day, during the initial ambush round what is now called Shooters Lane.

The second find came to light earlier today, and I was desperate to run about telling as many people as I can about it. We braved thick drizzle (which was quite refreshing initially after a muggy day yesterday) to visit another new permission near Frome in Somerset and unearthed a Victorian penny first, followed by this considerably older item from 15" down

which I believe to be the head of a Frankish throwing axe, or francisca . These date from the fifth to the eighth ceturies and were used by Germanic troops either serving Rome or busy invading Britain and fighting the likes of King Arthur.  Needless to say I pinged a picture off to the county Finds Liason Officer and hope to hear back soon.

 

You can just make out the socket for the shaft in the picture above which we will be leaving untouched until the archaeologist has had a look. So all in all an exciting day. Ifeel a bit guilty neglecting the toy soldier front, but to be honest we are having such a blast detecting, I can't find time to do much else.

POP GUN FOR SALE

Just posting some pics for a potential buyer of my matchlock musket. I can't imagine I'm going to ever fire it again, and the licences need renewing every few years.

ECW REGIMENTS BY MALPLAQUET MINIATURES

More figures recently listed among which are these 2 English Civil War regiments. I started painting these a few years ago, but the project stalled, so I have dug them out, finished them off and am now selling them.

(EDIT: ECW UNIT ABOVE NOW SOLD)

A unit of Norman cavalry sold this morning, so I packed them up and they are now heading towards Sienna! Clearly Italo-Normans.

A DAY TO CELEBRATE

Hurrah.... the 19th May, the day England was declared a Commonwealth in 1649.

Have a good day.

A CASTLE, TWO PARTERRES, AND A GROVE OF ORANGE TREES

We piled into the car today and headed up the Wye Valley to Goodrich castle. Last time I was there was in 1997 with the ECWS taking part in a brilliant siege with earthworks , gabions etc , probably one of the best re-enactment events I've taken part in.

English Heritage have tarted up their reception area, and racked up the prices, but there were some interesting exhibits,

Roaring Meg, the only surviving ECW mortar used in the 1646 siege

Two gargoyles I don't remember from my 1997 visit.

The Norman keep

The castle seems to grow out of the rock

Some lovely Herefordshire/Monmouthshire countryside

George tries his hand at the mysterious art of gunnery.

After visiting the castle we went on to Westbury Court Gardens, a rare surviving example of a late 17c Dutch style water garden

A fine canal

Neptune reigns here (I am writing a paper on pagan imagery in 18c gardens, but may have to include this as he is 1690's)

I can just imagine Mr. Neville from the Draughtsman's Contract setting up his easel here.

The pavilion from the end of the long canal.

All in all a jolly day out mixing warfare and gardening.

A PIRATICAL START TO A JAMESIAN OUTING

A pleasing start to my weekend off work (I work alternate weekends). Coming round at 9am to the smell of fresh baked rolls and strawberry jam. I can't remember when I slept so late last, so refreshed and with a spring in my step I headed to the garage to knock up 3 pirate pistols that had been requested from the Things 1,2 and 3. Simple affairs jigsawed out of some wood left over from my old Dad's workshop,

They kept the boys busy sanding them down and being pirate rats all morning bawling

"We fly a banner all of black

with scarlet skull and boneses

and every merchantman we take

we send to Davey Joneses..."

John Masefield The Box of Delights

Whislt this rumpus was going on I snuck off to the attic to paint some 18c gardeners which will be appearing tomorrow when the varnish is dry. We then headed out to Farleigh Hungerford castle just down the road, a severeley ruined mainly 14c castle where I have spent many happy weekends in my youth fighting for Parliament with the English Civil War Society. 

I took a few pictures of the contents of the castle, and it struck me M R James would have found much of interest, and possible inspiration for ghost stories . For instance these sinister lead coffins in the chapel crypt

Or the grave slab of a medieval monk, excavated in the 19c and the skeleton was said to "have teeth quite perfect "

(you can just make out the monks head at the top of the slab)

There is a splendid medieval wall painting of George slaying the dragon

and much for the ECW enthusiast too. Parliament held by Sir Edward Hungerford until 1643 the castle was taken over by his Royalist half brother, who terrorised to surrounding countryside in the name of the King stealing horses and supplies. The effigy of the Puritan Sir Edward and his wife are in the chapel

despite his military dress, he seems to have surrendered or run away from any action he was involved in.

There is some armour in the little museum too

(another Jamesian touch, with " a horrible face of crumpled linen")

A nice model of the castle in it's heyday

Outside it had stopped raining hard so we poked about the ruins

The river below the castle has burst it's banks.

It then started to hail, so we packed up and went to the excellent Farleigh Road farm shop to get some provisions, back to the castle to collect a wooden pistol left in a guardroom and then home for tea and cake.

A FIELD IN ENGLAND

Earlier in the week I picked up a copy of Metro at work and read a review of this film which is released at Cinemas and on DVD on Friday. After watching the trailer I popped over to Amazon and ordered the DVD which should come on Friday (it's also on telly on Friday too, but we don't have one),

Apart from being set in the Civil War and reminding me of various drug taking escapades in my ECW re-enactment days (many many moons ago I hasten to add) the filming looks to capture the English countryside perfectly reminding me of Robert Westall's Devil on the Road, presenting a rather eerie picture of England in the seventeenth century. The release date is 5th July, The 370th anniversary of The Battle of Lansdown.

THE STARS ARE STILL PROPITIOUS

...or so it seems. Popped over to the Lincombe Barn Wargames group tabletop sale in Bristol today, primairly to pick Robin up some Lord of the Rings Haradrim (which we did at a good price), and also got him some Chaos types.

As I am into 54mm at the moment there wasn't much for me but I did land a haul of books.

All Civil War, and mostly unread by me before. The little grey one is the Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson. Back in the late 70's I used to get With Pike and Musket from the library on a regular basis and gloat over pictures like this

splendid inspiration, I would dream of being able to do a layout like this with metal figures (some still available from Minifigs, Spencer Smith and Hinchcliffe).  I am very tempted to get some 25mm old school ECW armies... 

NEW YEAR AND NEW FACE

A Happy New Year to you. Happily this morning dawned without a pounding head as we were very sensible and turned in early last night (to be awakened at midnight by barrage of fireworks). After a walk in the woods we went over to a friends house in Monkton Combe, a village just down the road from us and had tea and buns. Matthew there is a keen target archer and I was most interested to see his bow, an edifice of wheels, pulleys and sights, unfortunately I had forgotten the camera, or I would post a pic of it.

I have decided to use a new avatar/image thingy this year, an eighteenth century gentleman called Sanderson Miller who was responsible for designing a number of follies and eyecatchers for wealthy friends (including Sham Castle on Bathampton Down near us). Those of you who know the Battlefield of Edgehill will also know the Castle Inn built where Charles Stuart (that man of blood) raised his standard before the battle, this was built by Miller as a folly on his own estate in the mid eighteenth century.

Hopefully this year I will make a start on my Imagi-nation campaign, War for Arcadia in which the Duke of Trompenburg and the Prince-Bishop of Arnheim battle it out for the best landscape garden. I have made a start on the 54mm Trompenburgers by preparing them for painting

The figures are the new HAT Prussians with Armies in Plastic Command bods. One thing I did notice with all these figures is that even after washing in detergent they would not take the usual coat of PVA I tried to give them, the glue pooling in blobs all over the figure. This was particularly bad on the AIP figures, so I will have to undercoat them in enamel and give them an extra coat of floor varnish after painting. I plan to do them in a real toy soldier style, with pink cheeks and rosebud lips and extra glossy varnish.

With luck I will also have a go at doing the same campaign in 1/72 using Zvezda GNW figures which I prefer as they are more suitable for 1730's when the Arcadian movement in England really began to take off.

Also on the painting table is a regiment of Roundhead cavalry in progress