Pikemen

[Volunteer]

A photo I took at a living history display (also want to test uploading of photos). Click on shot for full dimensions.

The attachment Pikemen.jpg is no longer available

[IronBMike]

Very cool! Looks fun.

[tim]

I seen a few reenactments - civil war, Hastings and Waterloo. The Civil War an Hastings reminded me of a rugby game played in armour with weapons! One chap broke an arm, another a leg and one of the Perry twins who make the Perry miniatures and started at Games Workshop lost a hand when loading a cannon. Dangerous hobby (and I played rugby for 30 years)! But fun to watch.

[RebBugler]

I see these obviously HAPPY PIKERS must be restrained by a rope...notice the taunt blue rope.

What in the heck is going on here? :woohoo:

[Saddletank]

The rope separates the combat area from the public viewing area and these pikemen are facing into the audience and making a line to pose for the camera. Their happy smiles suggest the same. On the battlefield they don't look so chummy.

I used to be a musketeer in two Civil War re-=enactment societies (see my avatar) and one day accidentally shot another re-enactor in the face. I didn't even have a paper wad in my musket and he suffered quite bad burns but fortunately his sight was okay.

The ECW re-enactments you can see in Britain every summer can be quite brutal affairs because the combats reply mainly on melee rather than firing lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHmMSIqMI5c

[Volunteer]

The rope separates the combat area from the public viewing area and these pikemen are facing into the audience and making a line to pose for the camera. Their happy smiles suggest the same. On the battlefield they don't look so chummy.

I used to be a musketeer in two Civil War re-=enactment societies (see my avatar) and one day accidentally shot another re-enactor in the face. I didn't even have a paper wad in my musket and he suffered quite bad burns but fortunately his sight was okay.

The ECW re-enactments you can see in Britain every summer can be quite brutal affairs because the combats reply mainly on melee rather than firing lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHmMSIqMI5c

Your assessment of the photo is correct.

I reckoned you may have been a re-enactor from your avatar! I joined the Sealed Knot in 1973, (the organisation was only four years old then), as a drummer boy in the 5th Northumbrian Companie of Pikemen, Lambert's Levellers, and participated in all of that year's major events -- including the Killiecrankie campaign of the 1680s. I saw many near misses to life and limb and the occasional serious injury. The worst was at Killiecrankie when a Scot with a battleaxe split the face of an English redcoat from brow to jaw. :ohmy: The onlooking Jocks got a bit vociferous in baying for blood. Things almost got nasty as some re-enactors strayed onto the mass grave of the highlanders who had died in the real battle.

I took the photo this month -- my first contact with the SK since 1973 -- and as your video showed the re-enactment scene has become altogether more sophisticated in its depiction of the English Civil War.

I Remain, Sir,
For God and Parliament!

[Volunteer]

B)

[Volunteer]

I see these obviously HAPPY PIKERS must be restrained by a rope...notice the taunt blue rope.

What in the heck is going on here? :woohoo:

The pikemen were taking their encore before spectators at the end of a demonstration. As for the blue rope -- meh! -- the bane of photographers!