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What We Do

We are a like-minded group of history nerds who have a deep love of 14th century medieval history, and all that went with it. Individually, we study the things we love and teach each other. We try to make most of the things we use, whether they are metal cooking utensils, canvas pavillion tents, or the luxuriously warm wool clothing of the time.
  
Collectively, we hold both public and private events. Our public events are geared towards providing a window into the middle ages that is both informative and fun for non-specialists. Our in-club activities aim at providing either an immersive medieval experience or training and skill building for improving our medieval reproductions.
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There is nothing we won’t try at least once, nothing we won’t cook at least once, and no one we won’t hit with a sword, at least once!

Public Events

In-Club Activities

Would you like to have someone come to your event and talk about life in the Middle Ages? Do you reeeeally need a weapons demonstration to make your weekend complete? We can do that for you!
Most of the time we just get together as club members and have fun working on projects, training with weapons and armour, or putting our gear to the test in settings as authentic as we can make them. We typically meet on Sunday afternoons. We also hold special events that require more planning, like campouts and feasts for club members only.
Encampments

Our encampment features (so far) five medieval tents, two sunshades, a weapons rack and armour stands, market stall, and an outdoor kitchen with two fireboxes. It represents part of the entourage of a nobleman on campaign. Come on in, wander around, and get surrounded by medieval camp life!

 

We’ve displayed our encampment for the Beacon Heights and Beverly community leagues, the City of Edmonton’s SURF Program, the Brooks Medieval Faire, and Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Note that our set-up requires a grassy sward, as authentic medieval tents cannot be anchored to concrete or asphalt. Contact us for availability and pricing.

Crafternoons
Weapons Training

This is our go-to club activity, where we get together in our clubhouse to chat and work on portable projects. Sometimes, for larger projects (like carpentry), we’ll meet at a member’s garage.

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For the specific kinds of crafts that we work on, see the bottom end of this list.

When:

Sunday afternoons from 2-4PM, at least twice per month.

Educational Activities

It’s not always easy trying to learn about our medieval past by reading a book, and Hollywood hasn’t done a good job of showing how it really was back then either. How did people survive winter? What did they really eat? Did everyone go to sleep as soon as the sun went down, or did they have something to light their homes in the evening hours? Did only knights carry weapons, or could just anyone carry them? We’d love to share what we’ve learned with you.

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We offer “read-in” visits by costumed or armoured individuals, medieval themed school visits staffed by a number of in-costume club members, day-long children’s camps, and anything in between. Set-ups can involve indoor display tables and activity centres to partial outdoor encampments. Themes and activities include weapons and armour, cooking and baking, historical artifacts, heraldry (coats of arms), wool spinning, weaving, tailoring, and other activities of everyday medieval life.  Contact us for availability and pricing.

Feasts

Are you holding a medieval feast as a fantastic fundraiser? How about an event geared towards families? Let us come and show you some medieval games, lock up your sinners, or entertain you with some swordplay!

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We cater and host a medieval monastic meal at Holy Trinity Church each year. We can also add a medieval flair to special events, from birthday parties to graduations. Contact us for availability and pricing.

We practice historical European martial arts training (HEMA) when we’ve got the space for it. In the summers, we meet on a grassy sward somewhere where there’s lots of rooms to wave swords and spears around (following the historical fight manuals of I.33 and Liechtenauer, of course). In the winters, it’s harder to find an indoor space to practice but we’ve had some luck in the past.

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Always a good time, and a good workout! For those members uninterested or unable to do combat training, crafting often occurs simultaneously at the same location.

When:

Sunday afternoons from 2-4PM, at least once a month in the summers.

Medieval Meals

Sure, there’s steel swords, wool tunics, straw mattresses, and leather shoes – but what did the middle ages taste like?

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No better way to find out than some historical cooking!

When:

about twice per year, usually in the winter months when it’s cold and dark outside. We also eat our historical cooking when we’re in encampment.

Workshops

We have taken classes in all manner of crafts, practiced all that we have learned and are becoming fairly comfortable in our knowledge to the point where we are happy to offer classes in certain aspects of traditional medieval skills.

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If there is an aspect of medieval life you would be interested in learning about, let us know and we’ll tailor a class to your needs.

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Camping and Fishing

We like to go camping or fishing as a club at least once per year. We look for locations where modern infrastructure is out of sight or as inconspicuous as possible. Unlike public encampments, on these short trips we can just hang out and put our medieval accoutrements to the test, getting immersed in the experience.

When:

summertime (or thereabouts), at least once per year. We’d like to try hiking or winter camping too, but that requires more gear than most of us currently have. Squad goals!

Crafting & Experimental Archaeology

Hand-Tooled Trestle Table
Carpentry

Much of our club’s encampment is handmade from wood, and we work together on these large communal projects. It turns out that using traditional tools (like drawknives and shavehorses) is a lot of fun, and not nearly as noisy or dusty as power tools. Smaller personal items like spoons or chairs are also made of wood, and so carpentry is also something members work on individually. While it’s difficult in Western Canada to affordably source the hardwoods that would have been commonly used in medieval England, we make sure to finish our woodwork with authentic oils and paints.

Bone Needle Stitching
Sewing

Sewing your own costume may sound daunting, but it is one of the easiest skills to learn the basics of and can dramatically increase the authenticity of your historical representation. We don’t require that members sew their own clothing, but many club members have extensive experience with hand tailoring and stitching (including making bone needles). We use wool (or, exceptionally, silk) for outer clothing and bleached or raw linen for underclothes. Historical patterns are easy to come by, and getting your soft kit assembled is an excellent project for our crafternoons.

Spinning, Weaving, and Dyeing

It’s possible to purchase machine-woven and chemically dyed fabric that approximates the texture and colour of historical fabrics, but some club members are especially interested in the handicrafts of spinning, weaving, or dyeing fabrics. We’ve sourced raw wool fleece (also good for making felted hats), hand spun it into yarn, dyed it with vegetable dyes, and one of us has a loom ready to be used. We can also use vegetable dyes to more authentically colour machine-woven wool fabric, and grow our own dye plants in special gardens.

Cooking and Baking

There are a number of cookbooks from the middle ages with six hundred year-old recipes to follow. So that’s what we do! We make pottage, bread, puddings, soups, deserts and more. In camp we cook it all over fire with reproduction pots, spits, trivets, and tripods. What we haven’t done yet is make an authentic bread oven, or learn how to brew medieval beer. Squad goals!

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Shoemaking and Leatherworking

Once you’ve got your tunic and chausses sewn, you might think your costume is virtually complete, but it won’t be without the proper accessories, most of which are made from leather. Shoes, belt, and a pouch are a must! Like sewing, basic leatherworking is easy to learn and remarkably rewarding. It’s a satisfying feeling to know that, aside from the weaving and tanning, you’ve essentially clothed yourself from head to foot.

Metalworking

Iron and bronze are needed to make a variety of important medieval implements, from belt buckles to arrowheads. Some of us do basic blacksmithing, mould casting, and cold-hammered armouring. Of course, others of us save up our spare change and buy the best historical reproductions we can afford. But there’s nothing quite like swinging the hammer at Vulcan’s forge!

Shields and Heraldry

Every soldier needs a shield, and every knight needs a coat of arms, so we also study heraldry (the art of coats of arms) and build reproduction shields. Shield-making requires basic knowledge of carpentry, tailoring, leatherworking, and ironworking as a shield is comprised of all those components. Heraldry is a precise and fascinating medieval science, and heralds were also responsible for diplomacy, spying, and marshalling tournaments. Bring on the gallantry and pageantry!

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Pottery

Items of pottery like mugs and jugs (ooh, a rhyme!) are an often overlooked aspect of medieval living history. Some members are interested in medieval pottery throwing, and we have access to both potters wheels and a kiln. We haven’t gotten anywhere near medieval glass working, but hey, what’s another squad goal?

Parchment Making

If we’re gonna make reproduction medieval documents, we’ll have to do it on parchment. If we’re gonna get parchment, we’ll have to make it (because it’s way too expensive to buy). Break out the deer skins and the quicklime! (Parchment is basically rawhide, originally made from calf or sheep skins.) Our hides are procured in the autumn hunting season, while preparation takes place once the weather thaws. Parchment is also used for shield facing, and can even serve as a small ground sheet in a pinch.

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