History of Bradgate Park is celebrated
BRADGATE Park stepped back in time with the annual Living History weekend.
This year saw a bigger event with a theme of Meet the Ancestors and Travel Through Time at the Park, celebrating 800 years of the Bradgate Park Estate and 90 years of the charity that cares for the park.
For the event the Bradgate Park Trust joined with the Sealed Knot, and period re-enactors from the Stone Age to World War 1 and II (including the Shepshed Home Guard) to offer two days of free demonstrations, displays and living history activities in the Bradgate House Ruins and meadows adjacent to these.
Members of Lord Thomas Grey’s Regiment of Foote, part of The Sealed Knot, recreated the lives of members of the Regiment, with mock skirmishes to show the Regiment in action and a living history encampment. Medieval re-enactors also provide archery demonstrations and knights’ tournaments in the Tiltyard of Bradgate House Ruins.
The weekend event also celebrated figures from the past associated with the park including Henry VIII, and Bess of Hardwick. Re-enactors gave short talks and greeted visitors, whilst ensemble Fabula Musica performed authentic period music in the Chapel of Bradgate House.
The re-enactors ensured activities for children (from spear throwing to Roman artillery military catapults and ballista), along with something for all the family with talks on costumes through the ages, cookery demonstrations, armour repairs and a chance to use Dark Ages weapons with training in axe and spear throwing!
Saturday also saw the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Ice Age Partnership joining the event, celebrating the recent Stone Age discoveries.
The project allowed an expert flint knapper to share his skills with visitors, making an ice-age toolkit for use with schools at the park.
Peter Tyldesley, director of the Bradgate Park Trust said: “This weekend, despite the challenges of the weather, has highlighted the importance of the estate through time.
“It has been a pleasure this year to welcome many new re-enactors including Reach the Core (Roman and Saxon re-enactors) and local members of societies representing the Medieval period and World War 1 and II. They all provided opportunities for visitors to experience life in these times.”
All of the weekend’s activities were documented for an archive about contemporary life on the park by members of Leicester Forest Photographic Society who volunteer and support the charity in many ways, including helping in producing a 2019 calendar for Bradgate Park which is available from the Trust.