May 17th & 18th 2008 - Rufford Abbey, Nottingham
On Saturday got on with our plans to do pattern welding on site - a thing that as far as we know no one else does at shows. It proved very successful with the crowd, causing quite some surprises. With the showery weather leaving us with a wet anvil at times, people got to discover that when you put red hot metal on a wet anvil then hit it with the hammer it goes bang! The big showers of sparks that are produced when pattern welding also caused some surprises all round.
Sunday dawned clear and bright and with a frost which was a bit of a surprise, but the big tent and camp bed are proving their worth as we didn’t even notice that it was that cold until we looked outside (we were told later that it was about -3 deg C).
Some pattern welding but mainly repairs of broken kit for people and some casting of silver and copper, always keeps people happy as we can tell them roughly how much longer it will be before we pour so they can either wait around or come back in time to join the excitement of opening the mould and seeing if it has worked or not.
Unfortunately on both days there were a couple of mishaps (neither during the battle where you would expect them to happen) and people were damaged causing the air ambulance to make a dramatic entrance on both days. Luckily people were not as badly damaged as at first feared and were back on site once they had been to hospital and patched up. So as a thank you for them being there for re-enactors (and everyone else who may need them) I would ask that if you can please send them a donation to help keep these guys in the air, you never know when you might need them.
The main thing for Sunday though was that the weather stayed dry all day, so no wet tent to wrestle with - long may it continue!!!
