Saturday 26 October 2013

Osterley Park Country Fair

Right at the beginning of September I attended my last reenactment event of the year. :(
No one in my group wanted to attend so I thought I wouldn't be able to go, but a friend's group kindly let me tag along. :)  We were the only Napoleonic group there so it was a small reenactment, but it was fun all the same. :) The annoying thing is that I seemed to have been absolutely rubbish at taking photos of the camp! It was partly because, as we were the only Napoleonic group we did have visitors wandering around most of the time so there wasn't much opportunity to whip out my camera, but also I just kept forgetting to take photos. I sincerely apologise as what is a reenactor's blog post without lots of photos, so you can imagine being at the event!!? :)

Our small camp. Rosie and Sarah working very hard sewing some of the soldiers' clothing.

Apart from us there were lots of animals - owls, horses, dogs, ferrets, goats, and a wallaby!

These were our neighbours. :) So adorable but there were about 20 of them and 2 kept escaping and trying to eat our tent ropes!!! 


There were also a few fairground rides, but I think the highlight of the weekend for the public was the jousting tournament. It was recreated by a group called 'The Knights of the Damned', and was pretty much a recreation of the jousting tournament seen in the film 'A Knights tale', down to the music and the participants names's (which were slightly changed).  
















I have to admit that it was great fun to watch. :)


As well as the fair there was also Osterley House itself. A beautiful, mainly 18th century, historic house. 

Enjoy the views of the
I didn't take a photo of the exterior of the house as I have taken many on previous visits. So borrowed this one from the National Trust website.



Beautiful wall and ceiling decoration in the basement front entrance hall. 

The stewards office

The housekeepers Parlour

Sarah and I decided to take some silly photos in the kitchen, pretending that she was a maid working at the house. :) We got a few strange looks from the room steward! :)

Sarah washing up

The kitchen

Off to collect the eggs from the farm. :)

the larder

The dining room all dressed up to recreate what it would have looked like during a ball in the 18th century.

During the weekend the Covent Garden Minuet Company (a London based 18th century dance group) were doing dance demonstrations in the entrance hall.

We were also allowed to join in for a couple of dances, which was fun but I think I prefer Regency dancing. Georgian is much slower and more sedate - probably owing to the cumbersome clothing. 

They also talked about fans and fan language (getting some of the audience to join in with the demonstration)

I learnt that there was never any official fan language - that groups of friends each made up their own.

I loved this lady's gown.

The weekend started off with hideously wet weather, but by Saturday afternoon the weather had really improved, and Sunday was beautifully sunny. Overall it was a lovely relaxing weekend, and the perfect event to round-off this years reenactment season. :) Oh and I also got to try my hand at archery, which was so exciting as I have wanted to try archery for as long as I can remember!! :)