Wales trip with photos, part 6b

[fbhjr]

When I got into performance sword fighting 15 years ago I was given a birthday present of taking a sword fighting class at the Higgins Museum.
Some instructors were coming over from the Royal Armories at Leeds to teach a sword fighting class on Historical Sword Fighting as opposed to the stage stuff I was doing and had been doing for 20 or so years at that point.

That class totally changed everything I wanted to do with sword fighting and has very strongly informed everything we’ve done at Phoenix Swords since we formed it 13 1/2 years ago.

My wife and I both took several more classes with the folks from Leeds. Lots of folks from the Higgins museum went over there, but we never did.
A different museum here in the states made an arrangement with them and got a big exhibit and a lot of sword training. (The Frasier museum in Louisville, KY).
My wife and I went there and saw that. We were very impressed.

This trip we were never going to get closer than 100 miles to Leeds. But, we drive 1300 to do shows.
We discussed the trade off between another day of castles and seeing the museum we had heard of in song and story for 15 years.
So, off to Leeds we went:
https://www.royalarmouries.org/leeds


On the way there we discussed if it could live up to all we had heard.
But, as we came down the hill into the city, the clouds parted and a rainbow formed pointing to the armory.

We agreed, that was a good sign.

And, it was a very cool museum.


But, as my wife and I both have worked at museums, we notice certain things.
Like the eternal world peace flame not being on yet when we got there…

(It was lit later in the day. So, eternal, just not right then…)

They do have a very impressive collection of things. Probably more in the entry hall then we had at our museum in total.


There was some sort of academy there for a visit too. So, student soldiers charging up and down the stairs. Distracting, but appropriate.


This helm is the signature piece of the armory.


They even have armor toys from 500 years ago.


But, we were there for sword fighting.

We watched the demonstrators warm up and refresh one of their numbers material.

We were not the only ones watching.


Once they finished we looked around at more of the museum.








I like their signs for stairs.


They had some good interactive things. One where you took a quiz on the different aspects of weapons by lifting them to give your answers.


And, benches!


But, you know why I was there…






I did stand in line after the show to hold the sword.


My wife says she could see I looked somewhat familiar to me. Finally he asked where I was from. When I told him Worcester MA, it made much more sense to him.
We chatted a bit about how sad it was our armory closed. But, I didn’t take up too much of his time either.

It was VERY cool for me to meet again someone who changed how I look at this and is still doing very good shows.

As we made our way out of the museum we found they were doing a big Star Wars thing at the entrance.



So, all in all, it did live up to what we had been hearing for 15 years.
That’s cool.

Comments

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

If that museum didn't have your names on it - I'm not sure what museum would.

[meathiel]

Definitely looks like exactly YOUR kind of place! :D

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

omg, i'm drooling over that Venetian hald-and-a-half. glad you guys took time away from your stones-on-stones to see metal-on-metal.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

It looks amazing. I am so glad it met all your expectations. =)

[yesididit2.livejournal.com]

the stairs sign was awesome!

i swear the toy armored soldier started with legs. but kids play rough, and legs fall off. especially if you're making your toy get on and off horses to fight with your other toys.

the red and white vertically striped tent looked familiar!

i think there might be a broken link just before your sword fighting video.