Peter Pig: Dark Ages Buildings

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Always on the look out for suitable buildings I found these from Peter Pig, a barn and a store house.

One advantage of seeing my own 'stuff' on a screen, and magnified, is that shows up all the imperfections. In this case just how awful the thatch is. Needless to say, they have been repainted. I will, however, leave these pics here as a bad example. Keep your eyes peeled for a post about painting thatch in the future... see here




The updated version

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London Trained Bands - Red Regiment

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Trained Bands were a militia of part time soldiers; they were formally founded in 1571 under Elizabeth I, although their history dates back much further. Each County had a trained band, but in London there were a number of regiments. Initially there were north, south, east and west regiments; by 1638 four had become six regiments (now called red, white, blue, green, yellow and orange regiments), by the time of the First Civil War there were these six regiments and three suburban regiments (Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster). Each regiment drew it's men from a particular district of the city. In 1643 they were expanded again by the formation of the auxiliaries, giving a total of eighteen regiments.


We know quite a lot about the London Trained Bands (henceforth LTB) thanks to the Royalist spy William Levett


The Red Regiment mustered it's men from Aldgate, Tower and Billingsgate. The red regiment was the senior regiment of the LTB. 'Red Regiment' refers to their fl…
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Sir John Meldrum's Regiment of Horse

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Sir John Meldrum's Regiment of Horse does not have spectacular or even notable battle honours, so why does it get it's own blog post? Regular readers will know that I have been having a bit of an existentialist crisis with the makeup of my two main armies. We know that generally armies had equal numbers of horse and foot, but rather than having 200 horse and 200 foot I prefer to field equal numbers of units. This karmic balance was shattered for a variety of reasons and my regiments of foot became rather top heavy.


So here are the first of twelve regiments of 'death by brown paint' horse - six each for Parliament and the King.

Meldrum's horse were formed in 1643 and served in the midlands and the north. Battle honours include Gainsborough, possibly the relief of Gloucester, First Newbury, and were besieged in Hull. After 1643 they fought at Nottingham, Ormskirk and possibly the siege of Scarborough.

Pretty much straight out of the box Piggies, just a couple of head…
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Portland Collection - the Harley Gallery

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What can I say about the Portland Collection at the Harley Gallery, on the Welbeck Abbey estate, near Worksop?


Firstly, I must point out that photography is not allowed. At all.  Not even sneaky ones without flash, so you'll just have to take my word for what's there.

The Harley Gallery is located in what has to be one of the nicest gallery buildings I have been to.

A large airy gallery space houses portraits of Charles II as a boy, and William Cavendish first Duke of Newcastle by van Dyck.  Other Civil War era portraits include Sir William Farmor by  William Dobson; 'Mad Madge' the Duchess of Newcastle, and Sir Edward Harley both by Sir Peter Lely.

Elsewhere there is a Newark siege coin, a number of Charles I medallions and Charles's toothpick and case. Highlight of the entire gallery has to be a drop pearl earring  worn by Charles in pretty much every one of his portraits (from the age of sixteen). A close second is the chalice that he drank from on the day of hi…
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Earl of Stamford’s Regiment of Horse

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The Earl of Stamford's Regiment of Horse was a short lived regiment that existed in 1643 and served in Gloucester.

They may have had a skirmish at Burford, but definitely fought at the siege of Siege of Sudeley Castle and the battle of Highnam.


Their cornet is interesting; an old Military Modelling article from the 70s, on ECW flags, gave the cornet as blue with white horizontal stripes (from the Earl's coat of arms); however, the rather succinctly titled 'BL MS Additional [Sloanee] 5247' gives the field colour as solid blue. As BL MS Additional [Sloanee] 5247 was a contemporaneous pattern book of cavalry cornets I have plumped for the solid blue field.



Just a couple of headswaps in this unit, and one of the mounted casualties.
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Flags and Colours Part 2: Evidence

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Updated: Seven more cornets located!

Part two of the KeepYourPowderDry guide to Civil War flags and colours looks at evidence - surviving flags, and contemporary records.

Surviving Flags

There is a watchett (blue green) piles wavy ensign in the collection at the National Army Museum  (not on display), which very little is known about. One source claims it predates the Civil Wars (early 1630s), whereas NAM currently believe it dates from 1688 and belonged to Prince William of Orange (before he became King William III)


Picture courtesy of the National Army Museum
Of course, the ensign belonging to Sir John Gell's Regiment of Foot takes pride of place in the refurbished NAM. 
I have read that when the museum was conserving Gell's flag, and the museum was undergoing major refurbishment, that it was planned to alternate display of the two flags in the NAM collection. 
Antony House in Plymouth, have a yellow ensign on display with black lion devices (possibly belonging to Alexander Car…
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Another Year On

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Who'd have thunk it? I have managed another year of awful painting and dreadful prose.

Blog continues to go from strength to strength. In the first year it managed 15,600 hits, this year it's nudging 27,600. Must be doing something right, or there has been nothing on the telly globally for the last twelve months.


The KeepYourPowderDry blogiversary party: regular readers will note that the Saturday Boy
has not been invited, after he embarrassed himself last year
Most successful blog post of this year is 'Sealed Knot - ECWS: re-enactors on 450 hits: and the most successful of all time is "What Colours To Use" with over 800 hits. Most popular search term that ends up with a visit here is, not unsurprisingly 'Peter Pig' although 'ECW travelogue' is fast catching up. Strangely 'podiatrist Tyldesley' has secured rather a lot of blog visitors too.

A number of older posts have been updated; for example the London galleries post now has details of th…
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Daventry - Naseby 375

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As 2020 is the year in which the 375th anniversary of the Battle of Naseby is celebrated, it is fair to assume that there might be a few Naseby 375 ECW Travelogue entries... the first visits Daventry, an unassuming market town in Northamptonshire. Keep an eye on the Sealed Knot's event list as I have an inkling they might be organising something special.


Can't say I have ever been to Daventry before...

There are a number of buildings on the High Street and Market Square that were here when the King's Army was billeted here The Old Grammar School, with a 1600 date stone, located next to Daventry Museum Daventry Museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition "Commemorating the Battle of Naseby: 375 years. Daventry’s place in the Conflict", which is on until the 24th April. be warned, the museum has slightly esoteric opening hours (Tuesday - Friday mornings, first Saturday in the month).

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Photography Part Two: Museums

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Regular readers of the ECW Travelogue will know that I often have to apologise for poor quality photographs taken in museums. Normally this would be down to operator error (i.e. my incompetence) but on these occasions it isn't: it is down to museums becoming light airy public spaces. Great for the building ambience and visitor experience, awful for taking pictures.

But I may have found a solution. Just as my original photography post showcased a cheap, simple solution for taking photographs of miniatures; so this post will showcase a cheap, simple solution for eliminating light reflection in museums.


In use at home on a glass cabinet door - even I draw the line at taking a picture of myself using this in public.
It is called an Ultimate Lens Hood or ULH for short. They come in three sizes, and a special version for mobile phones; I've got the 'Go' model, or medium sized one (£20) which fits all of my DSLR lenses.

Strange items I own #63

ULH Go fitted to my DSLR (fits eas…
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Sir Bernard Astley's Regiment of Foot

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Once I had discovered that a relative was a captain in the Parliamentarian Holland's regiment, I had to represent it. This of course had the knock on effect of causing imbalance in my armies. So the King required a new regiment of foot to level this imbalance. So I give you Sir Bernard Astley's Regiment of Foot.



Originally raised as the Marquis of Hertford's regiment, Sir Bernard joined the regiment as lieutenant-colonel in 1643. Sir Bernard was the son of Sir Jacob Astley, sergeant-major general of the King's foot. After the storm of Bristol the Marquis stepped down from the military, Sir Bernard taking command of the regiment.


As the Marquis of Hereford's their highlights include Lansdown and Bristol; under Astley they fought at First Newbury(possibly), Cheriton, Cropredy Bridge, Second Newbury, Leicester and Naseby.


Peachey & Prince have  identified the regiment’s coat colour as white (by a process of elimination), however this relies on some unconfirmed ass…
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London, Part Five: Memorials (and Churches)

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The ECW Travelogue returns to the capital for a story of war, politics, births, deaths, marriages, illicit liaisons (possible) and execution. This time an Oyster card fuelled trip around the blue plaques, cemeteries and churches of that there London (with a pub thrown in for good measure).

The easiest way to complete this tour is using public transport (with some walking) and I have given directions using TfL Underground/Overground/Docklands Light Railway and the bus network. If you are unfamiliar with town and the transport system, the easiest (and cheapest) way to pay is using a contactless card, Oyster Card or app - just remember to tap in and tap out at each station. You will need a tube map (free from stations or better still download an app, most of which allow you to plan journeys) and a map app such as Google Maps on your phone.

First stop is Bunhill Burial Ground, City Road EC3 - Exit 3 Old Street tube station.  Bunhill was known as the hill of bones - literally bone hill; wh…
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