On the 1st and 2nd July Buckinghams Retinue made the long journey to the Chalke Valley History Festival to take part in one of the largest celebrations of history in the UK.

The festival is held every year in the beautiful Chalke Valley on the edge of Salisbury and the Cranborne Chase AOONB and hosts numerous historians, writers and craftspeople  throughout the week, giving talks and demonstrations on a huge range of historical subjects. 

Gilded pork being cooked on the spit and then sliced

Watching the jousting

Marchpane subtleties being made

Mark explaining the role of the barber surgeon

Vic and Darren showing the use of the portable bread oven

Rachel discussing food and social status

Salted beef, before and after cooking. 

Sewing and armour, a winning combination

Buckinghams Retinue provided a range of living history displays in our camp, including board games, medicine and arms and armour but the big focus was on historical cooking. Rachel went above and beyond to provide a huge range of historical foods, with a particular focus on what an army on the march would have carried and eaten, to fit in with the wider theme of this section of the festival (the end of the Hundred Years War).

Just a part of the fantastic food and cooking display

Group members will be attending the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival on the 8th-9th July but our next full event will be at Skipton Castle, North Yorkshire 15th-16th July for the 15th Century Castle Life event. Please see the Skipton Castle Website for details.