Frei Compagnie Events 2012:
STOP PRESS: Frei Co member Su's historical novel, The Colour of Treason by S.M. Harrison is available NOW from Amazon in paperback or e-book!
Saturday 11th February: Local History Fair, Doncaster Museum Chequer Road, Doncaster DN1 2AE, 10am - 4pm: TBS stall, show n' tell
Sunday 1st April: Towton Battlefield Society Palm Sunday commemoration, Towton Hall, 10am - 4pm: living history camp, traders and exhibitors, combat demonstrations, memorial service, battle re-enactment
Sunday 6th May: Friends of Lead Open Day, The Crooked Billet - living history camp, show n' tell, have-a-go archery, guided tours of St Mary's, Lead
Frei Compagnie members at Barley Hall in York
Towton Battlefield Society's affiliated re-enactment group, the Frei Compagnie, was founded in 2007 to act as the Society's 'medieval face'.
Our remit is to support the Society's battlefield promotion and interpretive work by showing TBS members and the wider public how people lived at the time of Towton: what they wore, what they ate, how they fought and how they passed their time. We do this by wearing period costume and using replica equipment based on medieval illustrations, documents and archaeological finds; many of the items we make ourselves from materials common at the time (like wool, linen and leather for clothing), or buy from specialist craftsmen at re-enactment markets.
We have a strong military interest thanks to the Towton connection - most Frei Compagnie members shoot the English longbow, and some also have sword skills gained through the European Historical Combat Guild. So there are plenty of soldiers among us - luckily we also have a doctor to minister to our wounds!
Since the Frei Compagnie was founded, our biggest job every year has been planning the living history camp and field shows for the TBS flagship event, the Battle of Towton Commemoration on Palm Sunday. We also appear at the annual 'Meet the Society' open day in August, put on archery, sword and gunnery demonstrations for members - and our rather shambolic mummers plays have become something of a tradition at the Christmas meeting!
Frei Compagnie kitchen at Towton Arming the Knight at a TBS summer meeting Performing 'The Poor Man Pays for All' for
Christmas 2007
Aside from our 'in-house' activities, the Frei Compagnie also promotes the Society's charitable and educational ethos by supporting local community events and good causes. So you'll often find us at school galas, village fetes and fundraisers for historic sites like Barley Hall and St Mary's Chapel at Lead - often accompanied by non-re-enactor members running the TBS stall. This is partly so that all Society members can join in the fun of events even if they don't want to get into costume - and partly to emphasise to visitors that TBS is an historical society, not just a re-enactment group! And of course, sometimes we're just plain silly... as shown by the pictures below.
Frei Compagnie gun crew! Dean tries (and fails) to load a post-medieval Two doughty knights preparing to joust at our
artillery piece at one of our favourite venues, the fabulously quirky Fort wedding in 2007
Paull near Hull
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