A Slice of Badger Dung Pie?

My Time with the Time Team at High Ercall House

A Slice of Badger Dung Pie?

So what's it all about? Living in a flea infested tent, lying on straw beds and eating only stuff that you've caught yourself that morning? Well, not quite! Living History offers a slightly different side to the Sealed Knot experience. It offers you the chance to meet and interact with the public, talking about life in the seventeenth century, and showing people how it might have been.

So, how do you do it? Well, if you just fancy trying it for the day, you dress in your kit, making sure that you leave your modern accoutrements in your plastic tent, and you come down to the Living History encampment and meet the public. Bring your weapon, your lunch, whatever, just come down and have a chat with the public. If you want to watch a regular temporary camp dweller, come down and watch Chris Modd. He doesn't usually sleep in the camp, but he comes down, talks to the public for hours, and usually gets fed. And not badger dung pie. You might get Chicken in Red Wine with Prunes, or Dutch Pudding, (kind of imagine chicken, stuffing and herbs all rolled into one, with the texture of a dumpling), maybe eggs in mustard sauce or Salmon and Juniper Pie. For dessert you might get Prune Tart, Cheese Cake or Rice Pie. Of course, if you don't fancy that you can always just have bread and cheese..!

So, you have been down to the camp for a few musters, but you want to really get stuck in. What else can you do? Well, you can always get hold of an authentic tent, or borrow one for your first few outings. You might want a table, a couple of stools, maybe some sheepskin rugs to chuck around the place. If you want to try a spot of cooking, you will need some fire irons, cups, bowls and things, but we are getting ahead of ourselves here.

What can living history offer you? It can offer you the chance to experience a little bit more. Something more than just the battle, a chance to meet others who want to get just that little bit more out of their hobby. You don't have to have all the kit, a degree in English history, or a perfect West Country accent. Just enthusiasm and some energy!

So, what are you waiting for? See you by the campfire!

My Time with the Time Team at High Ercall House

By Steve Cornes Of The Earl of Northampton's Regiment of Foote

One day in 2001, when I was still in Corbetts, I received a call from Steve Pickstock. He told me that the Time Team had approached the Sealed Knot about an episode that was due to be filmed at High Ercall House in the summer. Steve was asked because of his knowledge of the history of the house and Corbetts were asked to provide some soldiers for the background cameos because they were historically garrisoned there during the three assaults on the house. He told me that it would take three days to film and that I would get free food, free beer, a free tour of the house and an opportunity to burn off some powder for the cameras. Brilliant I thought. Three days off work with food poisoning should just about cover it.

I arrived at High Ercall House early on a Wednesday morning to find the digging was well underway. People were running everywhere; vans and equipment were in every parking space and here Time Team myth No1 was shattered. THEY DIDN'T GET IT DONE IN THREE DAYS. They had arrived late Sunday evening and started first thing Monday morning. I arrived Wednesday and it was, as I said, in full swing. I left late on Friday afternoon and they were STILL at it. Eventually I found somewhere to park and went off to find the others. Later, when I found them, I was greeted with the news that, apart from Pickers, I was the only other Corbett attending. To make matters worse Corbetts company for the garrisoning of High Ercall House consisted of 1 officer (Pickers), 1 dragoon (me), and 1 musketeer (Chris Modd) from Hoghtons regiment. In fact if the Living History Group had decided to side with Parliament then we would have been outnumbered 5 to 1. The script editor called us over to brief us as to our roles for the next three days. He wanted one of us to go with a camera crew to a firing range to fire live rounds at a slab to discover what kind of damage a lead ball could do to a wall and the rest of us would build two gabions, fill them with soil and then fire a cannon at them to see if they could really stop a cannon ball. The criteria for whom did what was simple. The youngest and fittest did the grafting and the oldest got to go on the jolly. So the three youngest and fittest? (Pickers, Moddy and myself) drew the short straw for a crash course in gabion building and one of the living history group got the jolly.

Shortly afterwards we were introduced to a hurdle maker who had come to High Ercall House to teach us how to build gabions. We were then escorted to the orchard area where the soldier's camp was to be sited. There we found piles of willow bundles and billhooks and within the hour we were building gabions. They had to be six foot high and three foot in diameter. Occasionally, during the day, we were visited by the cameo organisers, Phil Harding, Tony Robinson and Mick Aston to see if we were managing and to their disappointment we were. Phil seemed to take great pleasure in ridiculing our effort and on the programme he can be seen admiring the gabion of the hurdle maker and then poking his fingers through the "huge gaps" that we had in ours. I'm afraid that at one point I lost my temper a little with his constant remarks about the gaps in our gabion and I said to him "Right that's it! I'm going to close these huge gaps you keep talking about once and for all!". With that I climbed up on top of the gabion and began to jump up and down on the willow canes. At first everyone was taken aback but when they saw that, in fact, I had closed all the gaps they laughed. The cameraman with them was so impressed that he asked me to do it again for the camera, and again and again and again. Risking life, limb and wedding tackle, I did as he asked, however when the programme was shown on television they did not include it.

Wednesday evening came and after we had decided to knock off for the day, Moddy and I sat in the fruit orchard with a couple of beers mulling over whether or not to go to the pub. A photographer who was taking pictures for the forthcoming Time Team book joined us. He asked us if it would be possible to take a photograph of us firing at night. He was particularly interested in seeing lots of fire coming out of the muzzles. We said "Yes, providing that we can find a secure place to fire". He took us to a paddock at the rear of the house and then set up his equipment. All the while he was setting up we could hear these voices in the dark. The cameraman explained that he was linked up to a radio circuit, as was everyone on the Time Team. The voices that we could hear were various members of the Time Team. We then made ready our muskets, putting in just a little extra powder to produce a better effect and the cameraman positioned himself. We agreed that we would fire on the count of three. When we were ready we presented the muskets, counted to three and then fired. There were two enormous bangs and two large flashes from the muskets and one large flash from the camera. Then this voice came over the radio. It was Mick Aston and he was not best pleased! "What the hell was that?" he shouted. There then followed a three-minute tirade of abuse across the airwaves. It was like a who's who of swear words and they were all there plus one or two Brummie ones that even I had not heard before. What we didn't know was that Mick was inside the house and was still filming an interview. The next morning he came over to us and we thought we were in for another round of abuse. He asked us if we had heard the loud bang the previous evening. I thought that honesty would be the best policy. I said yes and told him that it was my car backfiring. He looked at my car and said, "Naff cars these Fords are" and then walked off!

Immediately after breakfast we returned to our labours. A full day of gabion making was in prospect but to our surprise one of the public relations people asked if we could give ten minute talks to various parties of local school children that would be coming to visit us throughout the day. We agreed and this helped to break up what was a long hot day. During one of our many beer, sorry tea breaks, the lucky musketeer from the Living History Group came over and told us of his day at the firing range. During our conversation Time Team myth No2 was exposed. HE DIDN'T HIT THE SLAB FIRST TIME. Although the programme appears to show our friend hitting the target with first shot, he had actually spent the whole day firing at the same slab and hit it twice. With all the gabion making, entertaining school children and drinking we still found time to stroll about the set and talk to the diggers, and by the time the end of the day arrived we had only managed to get about three quarters of the gabion built.

Friday morning brought rain and an early visit from the crew. Both gabions had to be finished and loaded into the van by midday ready to be transported to the Minster firing range nearby. So we got our heads down and cracked on and eventually finished with half an hour to spare. Just enough time to say goodbye to everyone. We packed up the camp, jumped into our cars then followed the van to Minster and what a desolate, isolated place that was. It was like a set from The Lord of the Rings. All hills, rocks, trees and nothing else. We unpacked the gabions and carried them to the range and set them down firmly in the earth. We were told that the range had hired two labourers to fill the gabions but neither of them turned up. So the same criteria for who was to build them was used again and Moddy and I had to shovel what felt like a ton of earth apiece into the gabions until they were both full to the top. As we were shovelling the earth, Derek Ricketts and the King's Lifeguard gun crew arrived with a cannon and began to set up down range from us. A small crowd began to form around the cannon with camera crew, interviewers, experts and the gun crew all trying to do their jobs.

Soon everything was set and Derek put on his wig. The experts told us that because they didn't know what to expect, seeing as none of them had actually fired a live cannon before, we were all to vacate the firing range and stand outside. So we all filed out and left Derek with his gun crew and a remote controlled camera. We could hear Derek shouting the loading instructions and then the place fell into silence. We waited for the bang. The suspense was gripping. Then suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of a door being opened and all the gun crew filing out to join us outside. A bit ominous I thought. Apparently none of the cannon crew had fired a live cannon before either and because they didn't know what to expect and didn't want to hang around when it went off, they decided to join us instead. This left Derek on his own with the longest linstock anyone has ever seen to fire it. He shouted "Have a care!", and we waited and waited and waited for what seemed like an hour. Then suddenly there was an enormous bang. Louder even than the cannons we hear all the time on the battlefield. Everyone piled back into the firing range to see if the cannon and Derek had survived or not. When the smoke finally cleared we could see that the touchhole cover had been blown off as well as Derek's wig and Time Team myth No3 was uncovered. THE FIRST CANNON SHOT DID NOT HIT A GABION. In fact the first shot sailed at least nine feet over and embedded itself into the sandbank behind the intended target closely followed by Chris Modd who wanted the first ball fired for a souvenir. After the cannon had been repaired and Derek had replaced his wig, the second and third shots found their targets but did little damage to the gabions. This disappointed Phil Harding, as he was certain that the cannon ball would pass straight through. After wards, when the filming was over, there was the ceremonial ripping to pieces of the gabions because the owners of the firing range did not want them and besides, Pickers and Derek wanted the other two cannon balls as souvenirs.

I learned a lot from my three days at High Ercall House, from the Time team experts like Phil Harding and Mick Aston, but in particular from our very own Sealed Knot experts like Steve Pickstock and especially Chris Modd. However the most important thing that I came home with was an enquiry from the wife of the owner of High Ercall house. She is the leading light in the local society and a keen fundraiser for cancer charities. To follow up the exposure that High Ercall House has had lately, she wanted to know if I knew of a green coated regiment who would like to defend the house against Parliamentarians and play on that large embankment at the rear of the house. I gave her my number and now I await her call.