A REAL Viking comes to Stamford Bridge

Yes we are happy to have as guest speaker on 21st Feb 2013, a living descendant of King Harald Sigurdsson (Hardrada), Jarl Gunnar Olafsson. On Gunnars facebook page he explains how in Iceland the family name traces the heritage of when and where they originate from, one tradition they still hold on to dearly, unlike other countries... The Icelandic groups are new to the re-enactment scene, although they do have lots of societies and history groups, but as far as putting on public shows its all new territory for them; in fact the head of the York group, the Volsung Vikings recently went to Iceland to show them how to act and fight like a Viking....bizarre!

Just hope Gunnar has forgiven us for the death of his great ancestor here in 1066....

Well, I have decided to make my next project the 'Great Siege of Yorke' in 1644. I have done some very early initial research and I am confident that I can make a really good walking tour and combined book about the events of the siege and its after effects. I have began putting together the a4 leaflet and its early stages make it really exciting. There's nothing like this available to the interested casual visitor or more seasoned historical walker and battlefield addict at the moment in York, and its a piece of Yorks history usually neglected amongst the more popular Roman, Viking, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian periods.

Hopefully i will uncover some fascinating facts, lost locations, archaeological evidence and even some un-earthly tales to divulge to the walking groups. Here's some pix of Walmgate I took on Saturday last, having often read about signs of bombardment from the Parliamentarian guns on Lamel Hill and St Lawerences Church yard i decided to go and look for myself. Having seen the results of musket fire on the Gatehouse of Falkland Palace where i used to work, i know what the signature of the lead ball and cannon ball on stone looks like.

I also took some pix of St Sampsons church in the centre of York. Apparently due to the lack of any positive break thru by targetting the thick walls the Parliament gunners decided to aim for what they could see, and this included the highest church steeples and towers. Look carefully at the tower and you can see the original brickwork and the newer replacement work when the tower was reconstructed.

Outer wall on Walmgate barbican showing the effects of lead shot on the stone.

Larger diameter concave damage on the Walmgate barbican, probably due to a small cannon or culverin, about 5-6ins across. The trauma around the centre is typical of when iron or lead and stone meet. The frustration of the gunners to make large breaches to the strong defences are obvious. In fact the city walls were never broken down due to the bombardment, only by undermining the walls did the besiegers gain any access.

The barbican outer wall with noticable sagging of the stone work, probably due to the underground mining work carried out by the Parliamentarians, which was counter mined by the Royalists inside.

St Sampsons Church. The outer side of the tower with quite obvious new stonework showing where the gunners had a bit of effective target practice, with no strategic or military results.

One interesting aspect is the dual between the guns placed on Cliffords tower and the cannon situated on Lamel Hill, at least 100 shots were fired at the Parliament site, I wonder how many iron cannon ball still lie under the earth around there, now called Lamel Beeches. Methinks a knock on a few doors around the modern housing estate may uncover some results.....

Well here we are in 2013... and hopefully it's going to be a good year. Plans are in hand to continue with the Stamford Bridge Society and its promotion of the battle, and with the continued selling of the book and the new range of other items i have had produced. I will be adding an extra page on the site dedicated to promotional items and things for sale very soon, including A4 and A3 full colour posters, an exclusive limited edition set of A5 postcards and bookmarks and other items.

BattlegroundYorkshire will continue to expand this year also. I am beginning to undertake research on the next instalment of the series looking at either the Siege of York in 1644 or the Baedecker Raid on York in 1942. Depending on which is the most viable as an initial information leaflet / walking guide, (similiar to the Stamford Bridge one), i will then develop it into a personal guided tour and another book going into more detail with new illustrations as standard.

The late summer and winter was both exciting AND frustrating as far as the Battle of Stamford Bridge was concerned. In September we had the 2 day event in the village itself, (photos on photos page) and in October I was invited down to Waltham Abbey (photos on photos page also) to partake in the King Harolds Day event there. It was an excellent chance to advertise both the new Society and sell the new book at both events and we were blessed with excellent weather on both occasions. Crowds were good and very interested in what we were doing, the book and other items sold really well and we managed to get loads of new members interested in us. 2013 will be even better and bigger for both events and we hope to include new items on the agenda for the visitors at the Stamford event...watch this space or visit the Battle of Stamford Bridge website link.

In December we held a festive evening and fun quiz which went down really well, free food was even included... held a raffle too. We intend to hold more social evenings rather than just talks and regular society gatherings, this we hope will widen the interest as non-members are welcome to join the fun.

Our only downside was the terrible weather... we had planned our very first archaeological cooperation day looking at a stretch of old roman road near to Stamford Bridge in November. So i got all tooled up, packed my sarnies and filled my coffee flask, walking boots, waterproof jacket and rain hat all togged on, only to find the heavy rain had waterlogged the field. I half expected it but there was no point in even attempting to walk the field, the equipment would never had worked anyway in the half filled swimming pool. So we have planned for another drier day, hopefully very soon, but again its still waterlogged around this area and the clay based soil takes a long time to drain and firm out. We need a nice long dry spell and bright sunshine, then we can attempt another go at finding some new archaeological evidence that will help to piece together the story of 1066. So watch this space.....