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So said the Roman commentator Horace when alluding to the unheard voices of those who have gone before us. We attempt to bring alive the dead past so that those voices may be heard across the thirty generations that separate us from that distant time. This short article will tell you more about us and the wide range of our activities.
If you have never worked with a re-enactment society before, you might be wary of employing a bunch of volunteer amateurs who sound great but will they actually deliver? I can supply you with a contact list of happy customers going back over twelve years. Indeed, many of our employers offer us repeat work year after year after year.
Regia Anglorum is a society founded to accurately re-create the life of the folk of the Viking Age, as it was lived in the one hundred years before 1066AD. Naturally, our aim is largely concentrated on the effects that the Viking raids had on the British Isles, but we don’t ignore parallels on the near continent. Whilst the Vikings are the attention grabber, our efforts are very much aimed at portraying a balanced image of life as it was lived around a thousand years ago.
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Our work deliberately has a strong educational slant and we consider that authenticity
is of the highest importance. We prefer to work from found material where possible
and are extremely cautious regarding the interpretation of styles depicted in
manuscript sources. The Society has a very large quantity of what might loosely
be referred to as ‘‘props’’.
Constructed to the highest standards - and from the correct materials - they
include large-scale tents, cooking equipment, pole lathes, wall and braid looms,
coin-striking equipment, smithying and a wide range of other museum-quality
artifacts too numerous to mention.
Where circumstances allow, we can build kilns, charcoal clamps and smelters actually on site. These activities - supported by a kaleidoscope of simple features of everyday life - form a Living History Encampment based upon a number of tented structures from which the members can teach and demonstrate their craft activities. The Encampment is a living, working environment and not a static display of things that have been made elsewhere and are brought to site with a view to selling to the public. In fact, very little of our produce is offered for sale in this way. However, we have found that coin striking is very popular with our visitors and offer the facility for them to strike their own coins for a small sum.
As we are attempting to re-create the past of an island community, we feel that it would be quite inappropriate if we could not demonstrate something of the maritime life of our ancestors. Alone of all re-enactment societies, Regia Anglorum owns and operates several period ship replicas.
Three forty-seven foot GRP vessels form the bulk of the ‘fleet’. Built in the Isle of Man for the Jorvik Viking Centre in the late 1980’s, the Society purchased them from JVC some years ago. Our ships have appeared in various films and TV series including “The Adventure of English”, “A History of Britain”, “Blood of the Vikings”, “Time Team Live”, ‘‘Erik the Viking’’, ‘‘The Earliest Ships’’, "Great Ships" (shown recently on the History Channel) and ‘‘Ivanhoe!’’.
The largest wooden vessel is a good replica of the Krampmakken boat, and is currently out of service undergoing remedial work. This thirty-two foot replica has been used on the Ouse near York, the Humber estuary, the North Sea off Northumbria, the Firth of Forth and has also appeared in various films.
In 1994, the Society commissioned a six-oared boat, the building of which was completed at one of our events that year. It has seen use on the Medway, the River Itchen in Winchester, the Thames and has taken part in the Great River Race on the Thames in September on three occasions now - and we've not been last yet! All our wooden vessels are propelled by oar and sail alone and are larch built.
Therefore, we can offer what is probably the largest fleet of vessels of this kind in private hands in a thousand years!
Regia also specialises in combat re-enactment, the same stringent rules regarding authenticity being supplemented by on-going weapons training and inspections. We can organise a battle that closely follows what may be known of a historical encounter, or enact - rather than re-enact - a military confrontation that re-creates the general feel of a combat from the Viking Centuries. We would expect to liase with a client closely in this respect, but are perfectly capable of doing all necessary research in-house to the highest standards of historical accuracy if required.
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The Society feels that the importance of the audio aspects of a show is often underestimated and normally supplies its own high-quality sound system. All our military arena events are fully narrated by a speaker of great experience. Whilst performed to a scripted running order, most narrations are executed extempore and depend for their success upon a deep knowledge of the subject. The structure of public performances is deliberately arranged so as to inform whilst entertaining.
During the last three years, the society has undertaken a new commitment. We have purchased two acres of Kentish woodland near the A291 between Herne Bay and Canterbury In partnership with the Wildwood Centre at Herne Common in Kent, we are setting out to re-construct a Manorial Burgh from the Late Anglo-Saxon period. It is a huge and ambitious project, one that will occupy the Society’s members for years to come.
We have cleared an initial acre, enclosed it with a ditch-and-bank and have now completed the framing of the 20 x 10 x 10 meter Longhall. The roof is currently under construction and up to date pictures can be found at – http://community.webshots.com/user/kimsiddorn/1 - look for “Regia’s Wychurst Project” albums. A small cottage and a Grubenhaus (a Sunken Feature Building) are well established and the latter has just been completely refurbished as of Summer 2003. More details can be found at wychurst.regia.org.
Wychurst (the village in the wood) will be principally financed from the Society's own resources, but we are grateful to the Kent Rural Revival fund and the Awards for All scheme for their welcome contributions.
Commercial clients may like to consider an event bearing their name at this
site.
Many of our people can ride and we usually have at least one fully equipped warrior on horseback immediately available in-house. All tack and equipment is re-created to the same high standards as all our other artifacts, including a period saddle. We utilise horse to support - for instance - an arena presentation that traces the rise of the knight from the post-Roman cavalryman to the Anglo-Norman knight at the time of Richard the Lionheart.
One of our standard presentations is an archery contest. From our own resources, we can supply fully-equipped male and female archers, a range of interesting targets and backstop netting.
We have performed evening features of this kind in York for eighteen years for the Jorvik Viking Centre. Additionally, we have executed them at a number of land-based sites, off the coasts of Wales and Scotland and in Eire. Our preferred method of ignition is by means of fire arrows and this has never failed to ignite the pyre at any of our twenty-plus shipburnings. This romantic and movingly narrated performance is often followed by a firework display and such a spectacle provides a fitting and memorable end to an event.
There are, of course, areas of expertise that cannot cover and we have built up a series of reliable people whose high standards of presentation fit in well with our own. These include falconry with both flying demonstrations and a mews, spit-roast catering, street performers, musicians, jesters and fire-breathers. We also have sound and developing contacts with Rare Breeds Societies.
We feel that it is important for all our displays to start on time and that tardiness is very unprofessional. To this end, our Living History Exhibit is always ready for public view at least half an hour before the site is open. Our combatants expect to muster for battle at least three quarters of an hour in advance of the time announced.
In England and Wales, school visits and demonstrations under the National Curriculum are a very important part of the work of the Society. A typical visit would take up a full morning or afternoon session and include an in-depth talk, followed by inter-reactive demonstrations using artifacts reconstructed to museum standards.
Points of contact with the national curriculum can be in Key Stage Two under "Invaders & Settlers" or in Key Stage Three "Medieval Realms" which opens with the Battle of Hastings.
In addition to the obvious educational advantages, we have found that this is an excellent way of raising public awareness of an impending event. Teachers will wish to attend in order to take notes and photographs and the children will carry the news of the event home to their parents.
A single mail shot is usually arranged through the County’s Education Post Room, which alerts schools to the forthcoming educational possibilities. Each school then makes its own arrangements with our School Visitor Service.
All this can be arranged in-house and involves our client only in the production
of leaflets with which to supply teachers and children at the end of a school
visit.
Naturally, a similar service can be extended to local historical societies et
al.
The Society regularly arranges a wide range of events in places as far apart as Scandinavia and Eire. We are fully capable of organising and arranging a complete ten-day programme whilst working closely with our client to make a seamless, entertaining and educational product that will be remembered for years to come. Such a programme would include the provision of costumed personnel for press calls, publicity and corporate entertaining for actual or potential sponsors in advance of the event. Naturally, we can provide input on a smaller scale in line with our client’s requirements.
How much we cost depends on your requirements, but we are completely prepared to cut our suit to the cloth that might be available. For your interest, we regularly manage single event budgets of between £250 and £28,000 and filming budgets of over £50,000.
The Society is registered for VAT - No. 570 091 556.
We have £2,000,000 Public Liability Insurance.
A brief selection might be of some interest. The Jorvik Viking Centre, for whom we have worked annually for eightteen years. Five years annually at the Largs Vikingr! Centre, (whose drama documentary video almost exclusively features our members, their costume, props and equipment), English Heritage, The National Trust, The Royal Armouries and The Museum of London. Durham, Gloucester, Worcester, Wareham, Bristol, Stafford, Rochester and other UK City and Borough Councils. Ecclesiastical clients include Denny Abbey, St. Johns in Wareham, St Andrews in Chippenham, St Olav’s in York and Rochester Cathedral.
We have supplied replica artefacts, personal equipment and costume for - amongst
others - the Jorvik Viking Centre, Doncaster Museum
Services, Liverpool Metropolitan Museum for the Silver
Saga exhibition, The Museum of European History in Taiwan,
the new National Museum of Scotland, and the Peel Viking
Interpretation Centre in the Isle of Man. The latter has opened this
year and we were heavily involved with the making of the drama documentary that
is showing there. Having completed a £6,000 contract to re-equip one of
the UK's largest interpretation centres, we feel quite capable of producing
any equipment from a fine-toothed comb to a full sized ship replica!
We have a very wide range of contacts throughout the visual media, including the BBC - we have been featured in "Genius of the Vikings", "Blood of the Vikings", "Time Team" (four times now!), "A History of Britain", "Casualty", "Out of This World", "Ivanhoe", "The Matthew Project" & "See You, See Me". In 1997, we supplied the great majority of Extras for BBC's £6M production of "Ivanhoe". In '98 we completed twelve day's location work for BBC Education in Scotland and other days on location for Yorkshire TV's "Secrets of the Dead".. In recent years, we have worked for various independent TV companies, such as Aimimage, Ardent Productions, Flying Pictures, Halcyon Productions, Lightworks, Meridian, Principal, Screenhouse, Seventh Art, Telyasin, Thames Television, and the Los Angeles based World Wide Pictures.
Click here for more information on booking Regia Anglorum for filmwork.
I hope you have found our words and pictures interesting and evocative. None of the photos has been staged, all being taken at events or other work. I hope you have a pretty good idea now of our ability to organize, arrange and perform — from school fetes to major national events. I am available during normal business hours and would be very interested in discussing our possible input for YOUR event:
J. Kim Siddorn
National Coordinator
Regia Anglorum
9, Durleigh Close
Headley Park
Bristol
BS13 7NQ. or e-mail me on bookingevent@regia.org
Feel free to browse our website to see more about the full range of activities we can provide.