What the Romans (and Victorians) did for us

DSC_0160 by WJCruttenden
DSC_0160, a photo by WJCruttenden on Flickr.
Last year my daughter, Freya, won tickets to the Festival of History. This was a fabulous two day event featuring all kinds of historical recreations, exhibitions, talks and shows. Unfortunately, we drove the two and a half hours to get to the festival only to find it had been rained off.
This year the people who Freya had won the tickets from sent us a fresh set, so we could (try to) go again.

After weeks of blistering heat the UK summer abruptly stopped to allow us a day in the relative cold. But it didn’t rain. Freya, who has just started reading the Asterix books enjoyed seeing Roman legionaries in action, while her younger brother got very excited at the sight of people learning to fight with swords and shields.

We all sat down to the thrills of ‘What a Palaver’ and their bed of nails routine, even if the Elizabethan/Victorian costuming was a bit random. After that there was wild boar (burgers) to eat, another nod to Asterix, and the Battle of Hasting recreated with a wonderfully awkward moment at the end when the ‘dead’ had to get up to leave the field.

All this and a chance to play hnefatafl. We’ll be back next year.

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