For 1984 the muster list was:--

                                             Jan. 29th       Whitehall Parade

                                             May 26/28     Sutton Scotney

                                             July 14/15     Stokes Bay, Gosport

                                             Aug. 4/5.       Pontefract

                                             Aug. 25/27    Ulverston

whitehall Parade

 Joan’s Diary has a brief note for Saturday 28^th

 “Lunsfords at Red Angus” and “AGM at Spotted Dog”

It had become the habit to have the King’s Army AGM in London on the Saturday before Whitehall so that it was necessary to find overnight accommodation. Most of the smaller hotels were empty over the weekend, and if you could book in a party of say 20 or more you could get a very cheap rate, and Lunsfords made a party of it for several years until inflation took the cost to over £20, and the AGM was moved to a Battle.

The Red Angus was a B&B pub somewhere near Trafalgar Square, I think, but it has since disappeared.

Salisbury Banquet 24 March

 The Salisbury Company had become quite large and they ran their own Banquet in the Village Hall at Coombe Bassett. It was an excellent do!

Sutton Scotney

 Or as it is better known “Sodden Scotney”

 This was held in the grounds of Sutton Scotney Manor, once the home of J. Arthur Rank of cinematograph fame. On Late May Bank Holiday, 1984 it was owned by Mr Alex Herbage, who had a lavish lifestyle and owned many other estates. He started an ambitious renovation programme and created an Art Gallery and Sculpture Park. The park was opened to the public in 1983, with an extensive display of 20th century sculpture.

 If my memory is correct, Beryl Nesbitt had made a fancy dress costume for Mr Herbage, and had persuaded him to sponsor a battle as an advertisement for his newly opened Sculpture Park. So it became a Lunsford Organised Major Muster with Fred Lawrence from the Salisbury Company as Muster Organiser and me as Muster Supervisor.

 Joan & I stayed at the Abbot’s Mitre pub in Chilbolton, about five miles away, from Friday night and she records for Friday

“started to drizzle--good beer tent”

and then on Saturday

“Rained all day, March in Winchester,  evening Coach and Horses, excellent”

The March in Winchester I do not remember at all, but it must have been wet!  The Coach and Horses was (and is) the local pub in the Village.

 The Campsite was just outside the park boundary on a plot of farm land that had been cut off when the A34 bypass was built. Access was on a drive through the sculpture park to the top corner of the site.  Last years crop had been wheat, so it had not had time to develop a good turf. The audience and battlefield were on ancient pasture.

 This was late for the first Major Muster of the season. In those days we often had one at Easter and another at early May Bank Holiday, so it was therefore extremely well attended, and by Saturday Night the Camp Site was getting pretty muddy, and by Sunday Morning, after it had rained all night, it was impossible to move on it. People were still arriving and we had to make alternative arrangements and set up another camp site on the top end of the battlefield with access on the lane marked in green. This was a pity because it meant a modern campsite in full view of the audience, something we had tried hard to avoid with the original planning.

 Of the actual battles themselves I have little recollection but, Joan’s diary tells us that the rain eased off for the battle and that there was a small audience on both days. I became very friendly with the Agent for the estate, so much so that we were invited to his wedding the next year. In spite of the weather, they were delighted with the effort we put in and I have no doubt that we would have been invited to do a repeat performance but the venture did not last long as Mr Herbage was charged with defrauding 3000 US investors of 38 million dollars. His assets were confiscated and sold and Sutton Manor with 50 acres (20.2 hectares) of grounds was turned it into a retirement home and nursing home.

 I have not been able to find any pictures of the event (I am sure that our web mistress would be only too happy to include any that you may have, dear reader) but have just this of the original campsite taken on the Tuesday after all but Lunsford helpers had departed!

 And this was Monday night with the bar staff in the beer tent. Note that it was just as muddy in the beer tent as it was outside!  Because of the weather pretty well every one of the 800 or so participants had to find shelter in the beer tent or one of the two pubs, so it was very much “standing room only” and impossible to move. But as is usual under exceptional circumstances the morale and camaraderie could not have been higher!

 A Great Weekend.

 ~:~ 

 At the beginning of this episode I mention about spending the night before Whitehall at a cheap rate in a London Hotel. I have just found this picture of the one in 1983 at a hotel called The St James, a short distance from Buckingham Palace. It had originally been built as overflow accommodation from the palace in Victoria’s time. By 1984 it had been completely refurbished into a five star establishment and now beyond our means.

   ~:~ 

Stokes Bay, Gosport July14/15 (first of three)

 I have basically no information on this one.

 Joan’s diary shows that on Thursday 12^th we left London at 6.40am, arrived at son Dave’s at 9.30, called at Sutton Scotney (odd, unless we were trying for the follow on )and then on Friday I made three business calls in Taunton and Newton Abbot before arriving at the Alverbank Lodge Hotel, Gosport, at 7.30pm. Busy old me!

All we have about the event is that on Saturday is “it spotted with rain but was a good Battle” and on Sunday it was a “sunny day and a good battle”

I have a vague recollection of a shortage of beer in the beer tent, and of a big pub somewhere in the centre of the town which was a Biker’s pub and notorious for fights. The police and the landlord expected trouble when we arrived, but the Bikers took one look at the size of our lot and went off somewhere else for the weekend.

And that is all I remember about Gosport 1

 ~:~ 

 Would anybody like to fill this space with pictures or anecdotes?  If so please contact the webmistress

 ~:~ 

Pontefract Aug 4/5 (first of two)

 What can we remember about this one?

 Well, I am pretty certain that it was held on the Racecourse, and it must have been a financial success because I see that there was a repeat in 1986, of which more in the next episode.

The Diary tells us that it poured for the Saturday Battle but was dry for Sunday and that we stayed at the Red Lion, on Market Place. Of the battles or the campsite I remember nothing, although I have a feeling that it was a long walk with the guns from one to the other

  By this time we had got into the habit of taking a coach to a friendly pub for a Lunsford sing song, usually in the country away from the city crowds. Here we spent the evenings in a quiet pub in the street behind the behind the Red Lion. A memorable pub, because at closing time we had a lock-in with a difference. The elderly landlord refused to break the law by selling us alcohol out of hours, he just gave it to us for free for as long as we liked!

Unfortunately that pub is long gone and the site redeveloped, like so many others

he other outstanding memory is of a young fellow turning up and asking if he could  “have a go”.

It turned out that he was a miner, and as the miners were on strike he was at a loose end. So we kitted him out, he enjoyed the battle and particularly the evening sing-song. I particularly remember that after Brian and I said goodbye to him on Monday it was “nice chap but I don’t suppose we shall see him again”.

 How wrong can you be?

He turned up regularly from then on, introduced his friends and relatives and started the Yorkshire Lunsford Company and ultimately Martin Oxley became CO of the Regiment!

 Well, now, here’s a turn up for the book!

 In an old file called Muster Organiser’s Guide I have found an amazing twenty page programme, and here are some of the best bits. This is the cover on the right:-

This map actually takes up the two centre pages of the programme

(please forgive me for putting on it's side, it's the only way to see any detail!)

 On another page there is a competition for children with prizes of a reproduction Lobster Pot helmet made by one Len Sutton of Pontefract and scale models of two Civil War Soldiers, crafted in straw by a member of the ECWS. (sounds like Liz Smith busy again)

The prizes were to be presented by Colonel Des Thomas, Adjutant General of the Parliamentarian Army (and a very good friend of mine), from which I presume it was an RA event

 I have reproduced this page particularly for the Chairman’s remarks, and also to show that we were still staging events lasting two and a half hours.

Well, I suppose we were all twenty five years younger!

 And in spite of all that I still don’t remember the battles!

Ulverston, August Bank Holiday, 25/26/27

 The diary here is very kind! It goes:--

Friday, went on camp site, stayed at the Kings Arms

Saturday-on Lakeside train—up Windermere on boat

Sunday—Battle—very hot

Monday---Battle—very hot

 It does not mention that this was probably the worst organised Muster that we ever had. The campsite was advertised as being open from Friday and because of the lovely location on the edge of the Lake District most people arrived on the Friday. But the loos had only been organised for the period of the actual battles and did not arrive till Saturday afternoon. Not very pleasant! Everybody had to crowd in to the public conveniences some distance away or wait till the pubs opened.

 I seem to remember a long walk from the campsite to the battle field up a steep narrow track, but again, of the actual battles I have no recollection or photographs. I do have a recollection of a footpath through the campsite and remember walking along this path and coming across a Roundhead Regiment called “Fox’s”. They had a “tame” fox as a mascot and Beryl bent down to stroke this pretty looking thing and got a nasty bite. Vicious things, foxes! Also, in Lunsford camp, Nigel had a tame duck trained to pick bits out of his open mouth and from between his teeth!

 The really memorable thing about the weekend was the Saturday trip on the Lakeside train and Windermere boat. I quote:-

“Originally a branch line of the Furness Railway carried passengers and freight from Lakeside to Ulverston and Barrow, then south to Lancashire. This was closed by British Rail in the 1960's, and now the only part remaining is the 3.5 miles from Haverthwaite, through Newby Bridge to the terminus at Lakeside which has been re-opened by steam enthusiasts.”

So a party of Lunsfords embarked on this little train on Saturday afternoon after the pubs closed (this was long before all day opening), and were pleasantly surprised to find that once the train was moving they opened the bar and we could get a pint!

 Fortunately the train didn’t go very fast so we could enjoy it!

 Obviously we were in desperate need of a Knight in Shining Armour!

 ~:~ 

 The majors for 1985 are officially now listed as

                                           January 27^th      Whitehall Parade

                                           May 25/26/27     Trowbridge

                                           June 28/29         Witton Castle

                                           July 3&4            Ford Castle, Berwick

                                           September 7/8   Bristol

 So the Knight in Shining Armour managed to produce three Major Musters in reponse to the letter in January, and for two of these, I am proud to say, he was wearing the Lunsford Blue!

 ~:~ 

 Whitehall Parade, 27^th January in 1985 was quite memorable, not for the Parade but for the Party on the Saturday Night. This was again held in the Royal Angus, and it so happened that it was my son Mike’s 21^st Birthday on the Sunday. We had a private bar in the basement, and at midnight a Birthday Cake with 21 candles was duly brought in, followed by a stripogram, lots of jollification and a good time was had by all.

 Well, not quite all, it seems!

 We found out next day that when the 21 candles were lit on the cake they set off a smoke alarm, which we didn’t hear, but all the other residents upstairs were ousted from their beds or whatever and paraded outside in the street!

The Parade itself “dry but cold—snow on the way home-17 people came for stew”

Well, people going back to Norwich or the West Country needed a bit of sustenance.

Trowbridge Late May Bank Holiday, 25/26/27 May.

 The first of the two Lunsford musters! This one was found and organised by Nigel Hallworth, Aidi’s brother.  According to Joan’s diary, we got to the Polebarn Hotel on Saturday, when it was “very windy but dry”

 Joan always kept a record of where we stayed. We missed the camaraderie of the campsite, but way back in the fifties I had a back operation, since when I have found it very difficult to get up from the prone position, so a bed has been essential and camping has been out.

 For Sunday we have “Lovely sunny morning, but started to rain at Lunch time--small audience---Pig Roast”

on Monday “wet most of the day-surprisingly some watched”

And on Tuesday “Lovely sunny day”

 In fact on Monday it rained all day until after the Battle, but was sunny and warm in the evening as the troops were leaving, and we had a heat wave for the next week! Typical!

 I remember a fairly long narrow battlefield with an RA camp at one end which the KA attacked. It was so wet that we couldn’t keep the powder dry and the guns were not very effective so the gun crews took the opportunity of occupying the RA Camp when their soldiers were all out on the field.

 The PA system broke down with the wet, and the commentator made a valiant effort to compensate by running up and down the safety zone shouting, and that is my memory.

 I have now had some input from Aidi, (who confirms that Nigel was the finder & organiser with himself as Muster Supervisor), which has enabled me to enlarge on the story. 

 The event was the entitled, rather grandly, “Battle of the Biss”. It was held at Biss Farm (Biss being the little “brook/stream” which ran across the land) on the southern edge of Trowbridge. The Sponsor was the “Karl Alpha Foundation”, a local mental health “group” who didn’t make any profit from the event because of the weather. It had been so wet that some wag put a notice up as members left at the end which said “Remember to ship your oars as you leave”

 The Landlord of the nearest pub, The Castle about a mile away, found a Hopton asleep in his outside loos on the Sunday morning who reportedly asked if he could have breakfast when they woke him up, adding that it was the only dry place he could find to sleep!!

  The horse-box had difficulty getting the angle into the horse-field & got stuck for a while causing a very large traffic jam. Further problems were caused by some helpful soul “stealing” all the ECWS signs that had been put out on the Friday night (well, we were in quite a strong SK area but that was only ever a suspicion).

  The proper “portaloos” – the multi-wagon type – kept getting blocked so that Nigel spent many a night-time hour with his rubber-gloved hand stuck down them trying to get them going again whilst Jane Lawrence or Aidi held a hurricane lamp over him.

  Manny also did one of his memorable hog-roasts (how he kept it dry I don’t now recall) and Aidi had to keep getting boot-full’s of wood offcuts in his orange Ford Escort to keep him going with it – Aidi says it seemed a never-ending chore at the time.

  The other thing that springs to mind (I think that it was at Trowbridge, anyway) was when Fred Lawrence, who was the KA SFX bod at the time (can’t remember his appointment title now), accidentally “blew up” one of the musketeers (Ron Crouch) who was leaning over a mock powder-barrel as Fred set it off. Lost all his eye-brows!! I think that we also had quite good fun defending some basic JCB dug earthworks at this one – but it never did stop raining. As ever, the sponsor was amazed that we carried on with it at all.

Witton Castle 29/30 June

 This was the third and last Witton.

 We travelled up on Friday, and after a bad journey arrived at the Castle at 8.30pm. The caretaker at the Castle had a flat in the stable block and this year was doing B&B, so we stayed there. Very convenient!

 The diary tells us:-

Saturday 29^th—Good weather—only five injured—one bad cut

Sunday 30^th—good battle—rough at end—Sportsman evening—then Castle—good sing-song.

 Well, I can’t comment on that very much. What a change to have good weather! I do remember that at the end of the battle the attackers stormed the six or eight foot high wall to the terrace, and things always got a bit rough at this stage.

In episode 7 I tell how we went off to a local pub to dry out and get warm, and how friendly they were. This must have been The Sportsman,, but I can find no reference to it now so it has probably gone the way of so many good pubs. I do remember that at closing time we went back to the Castle and had a very good sing-song in an odd tower in the middle of the courtyard.

Ford Castle Berwick, 3&4 July

 I could remember absolutely nothing about this until I looked up Ford Castle on Google, and even then it meant nothing.

 The diary entry for Friday 2^nd says “Travel to Berwick—left 9.45, arrived Ford 5.15—picked up two Blackwells—stayed Cookham (Coach House)—windy but dry—Blue Bell”

When I look up Cookham I find that it is a village just south of the Scottish Border and the village of Coldstream, and this does bring memories flooding back, albeit of the social side and nothing of the actual Battles.

Accommodation was difficult to find.. The Coach House had fairly recently been opened as a hotel but was expensive. However they did have an annexe at the back and we shared this with Dee and Brian on a B&B basis. Since then, apparently they have turned a whole range of old buildings into bedrooms.

 But the main memory is of the Blue Bell. This was a quiet little pub beside the main road running south from Coldstream with an elderly Landlord & Landlady. Lunsfords took this pub over, and the diary for Saturday says

—dry and cold—wet as we went on the field, then sunny—Blue Bell—Meal—Good Singing and for Sunday sunny am—good battle—Blue Bell

I remember that the landlord couldn’t cope with the numbers, but Billie and another went behind the bar and took over, and the singing session on the Saturday was one of the best ever!

 Of the battles themselves I have absolutely nothing, but we did manage to get to Coldstream, and on the Monday we went to see Housesteads on the Roman Wall, and Raby Castle.

 One of the joys of this hobby of ours is seeing all these new places and sights!

Bristol, 7&8 September

 The second Lunsford Major this year.

 Janee White found the sponsor and became the Muster organiser, with me as Muster supervisor. I remember that on a couple of occasions we looked at a possible site at Ashton Park on the outskirts of Bristol. There was the possibility of a good battle site with a castellated gatehouse as a centrepiece but the campsite would have had to be out of the public park on the other side of a very busy main road, and in the end the venue was changed to Tyntensfield Court.