Fourth Bloggiversary

-

Socially distanced, after work cheese and wine, definitely not a party (note everyone wearing masks). Saturday boy showing himself up again 🙄

I am somewhat surprised to still be writing this nonsense after four whole years - who'd have thunk I'd have this much to blather on about?

And who would have thought that the number of regular readers has reached the dizzying heights of 'possibly seven' - a number that other bloggers can only dream of. So I am told.

Well somebody must be reading this as the page number thing keeps ticking over. Unless it is my mum, constantly clicking away, or some hackers in some far off distant land hoping to bring down great instruments of state (sorry you've got the wrong website, you want sites that end gov.uk)

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported the blog via Buy Me a Coffee, it really is very greatly appreciated. Your contributions pay for the domain, and help towards parking fees, house entrance fees and some fuel; it doesn't get frittered away on bottles of sherry you know. Special shout out to Haydn of Clubmen 1645 fame, (please do check out his website and buy his book, assuming he hasn't already sold them all) who has probably become a honorary company director or something, if such a post existed.

Thanks also to all the other bloggers who have put links to this place on their much more interesting blogs.

These include, in no particular order, and apologies for any I've missed:

One of My Men Became Restless (flashman14.blogspot.com)

The Via Regia: How to Start Playing Pike and Shot Wargames

A figure painting therapy project. (napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com)

Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff... (steve-the-wargamer.blogspot.com)

Codsticker's Historicals (codstickershistoricals.blogspot.com)

Wars of Louis Quatorze (warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com)

Prometheus in Aspic

http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/?m=1

Renaissance Wargaming | Using De Bellis Renationis with the odd diversion… (wordpress.com)

Horse and Musket Gaming

The Warbard | Wargaming & Such (formerly Brian's Wargaming Pages)

Of course, thanks as always to S who continues to tolerate "whilst we are here can we just visit...": patience of a saint, probably.

Very sad to see that 'podiatrist Tyldesely' has not featured in this year's search terms list at all. Good people of Wigan have you stopped caring about your feet? In other happier news, it is still good to see that Bromesberrow Church's 'official' website is still my post about the church and the Yate cornets.

Popular posts this year continue to be my coat colours posts, and my revamped 'which figures?' post. My revamped ECWtravelogue posts have had a bit of a resurgence no doubt thanks to the addition of maps - my York and Marston Moor map has been used just shy of a thousand times. Not quite as exciting as walking to Sulby Hedges last year and seeing a fellow battlefield walker with a print out of my Naseby battlefield post though. Strangely, my post about Sir Horatio Carey's Regiment of Horse took off, no doubt because it appears to have been appropriated by QI's Twitter account as one of its facts of the day.

Future instalments will include yet more Scots, lots more ECWtravelogue entries, plus I might be slightly distracted by putting yet more of this nonsense onto real paper in a real book.

In the unlikely event you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts,
please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.


Comments

  1. Waterloo Simon10 May 2024 at 08:22

    Do you know what is up with the Prometheus in Aspic blog? Do you have contact details for the author?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Radar10 May 2024 at 17:18

      Works fine for me. Try deleting cookies, then trying. Latest post was 6 days ago

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Houses of Interest: Essex

-
Image
The ECWtravelogue returns to Essex, a county about as far away from Château KeepYourPowderDry without getting your feet wet, or having your passport checked. But first, for other Essex Civil War related locations please see:- Colchester Combined Military Services Museum Essex was Eastern Association territory, so it barely saw any disquiet during the Wars, apart from the the events that unfolded in 1648 in Colchester. Audley End House was the home of Royalist, James Howard the 3rd Earl of Suffolk. He would spend the Wars at Oxford at the King's Parliament. The house would be untroubled by the Wars. Audley End is a fine example of Jacobean architecture. Alas no photography inside, lots of Wars related portraiture, alas not originals more copies 'from the school of...'. Oodles of buildings in Saffron Walden will have witnessed the events of the Wars Saffron Walden became a 'base' for the Army Newly Modelled, and has a number of connections to events from this time. T
Read more

Houses of Interest: Monmouthshire

-
Image
The inappropriately named ECWtravelogue returns across the border into Wales, this time dipping its toe into Monmouthshire. The entrance way to Chepstow Castle Chepstow was an important trade route on the River Wye, and into the Welsh Marches. Understandably the stronghold of Chepstow Castle dominates the river, towering over the river, situated on top of the cliffs. Chepstow looming over the Wye During the First Civil War the castle was surrendered to Waller's Parliamentarian forces who had surrounded the castle (but never really besieged it) for two years, in autumn 1645. With the resumption of war, Chepstow was again garrisoned for the King by Sir Nicholas Kemeys.This time the Parliamentarian besiegers were a little more proactive, and successful. Their artillery shot away the castle's parapets, inhibiting the defenders from mounting their guns. The Parliamentarian artillery breached the castle walls near Marten's Tower, Kemeys refused to surrender and the Parliamentar
Read more

Houses of Interest: Lincolnshire

-
Image
The #ECWtravelogue has dipped its toe into Lincolnshire, gateway to the heartlands of the Eastern Association, and the important ports connecting England to the Low Countries. Make yourself a cup of tea and settle back for a story of blue on blue killing, and the use of  human shields. Please note that several entries are private residences with little or no public vantage points - they are included for 'completeness'. Do not trespass or irritate their owners please. At the outbreak of the Wars, Lincolnshire was a divided County, Parliament having slightly more support than the King. Following the 1643 campaign the County was a stronghold of Parliament - not that they had it all their own way. The Royalist strongholds at Newark and Belvoir Castle providing considerable nuisance when the Eastern Association left the County to pursue bigger goals. Gainsborough saw a small, but important, battle on the 28th July 1643; so it was only fitting that I visited on the anniversary of the
Read more

Flags and Colours Part 2b: Evidence (Irish Confederacy)

-
Image
Irish flags... a conundrum. I knew that a number of flags were recorded, but without any reference to allocation to particular regiments. I also remember reading one internet reference that stated that each flag had two different sides. But I'd never come across the source material supporting this claim, or even a secondary source that described/illustrated the flags thus. Until now... But first a little bit of flag nomenclature (which if you want to impress people you can call vexillology). If you cut a flag down its middle and spread it out on a table, positioning the pole sleeve in the middle, the left hand side is the 'reverse' and the right hand side is the front of the flag, or 'obverse'. Regular readers, hello all twenty of you, will have realised that clothing issue 'floats my boat', I'm not really very good on flags. Most of my flag knowledge is gleaned from secondary sources, and the handful of more readily accessible primary sources.  The sour
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot. For all of my coat colour articles see: Introduction   Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours The Trained Bands London Trained Bands Auxiliary regiments Scarves   Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question around a coat colour I have t
Read more

Houses of Interest: Staffordshire

-
Image
The  ECW Travelogue turns its attention on Staffordshire. For some reason, rather than starting the entry at the bit of Staffs that is 'next door' to  Château KeepYourPowderDry I started with the corner of Staffs that was furthest away. The first entries look at the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Of course any post about Staffordshire requires, by law, pictures of Staffordshire slipware - this one by Thomas Toft; Potteries Museum, Hanley First up is Moseley Old Hall  on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, and is cared for by the National Trust. Moseley bills itself as "the home that saved a king" - considering the number of close calls that Charles had during his escape, this isn't really the unique selling point that you might expect it to be. I do wonder how many other houses, along the Monarch's Way could also make that claim? Built about 1600, the National Trust have recreated a seventeenth century garden on the estate. A rather s
Read more

Coat Colours Part 3b: The Army of Montrose and the Irish

-
Image
I suppose this post was inevitable; I started wondering what colour palette I would need to use to paint my forthcoming Montrose army. I've already investigated coat colours , general dye colours and how that roughly translates to paint codes , but I needed a rough idea of tartan colours, shirts and in particular those colours favoured by the Irish. Just as there is a wargamer fact™  that 'the London Trained Bands all wore red coats' so there are also quite a number of well established wargamer facts™  concerning the clothing of the Irish and Highlanders. But how factual are these facts? Highlanders Wargamer Fact™: the Highlanders wore yellow shirts .  Highlanders did wear shirts, and some, at least were dyed yellow. Highlander's shirts were made from coarse linen, they certainly didn't lace up at the front (in an Adam and The Ants style). James Gordon's History of Scots Affairs 1637-1641 (written 1841) has this description “As for their apparel; next the skin,
Read more

Sir James Dillon's Regiment of Foot

-
Image
Just when you think that things can't get any more complicated, along comes James Dillon and his regiment. Only there are two James Dillons; well, that's not strictly true, there's load of them. Initial research brings back lots of information, and a flag design, but then you realise that it is Dillon's Regiment serving the exiled James II in France, and the French in the Williamite wars (which has its roots in this Regiment). Oh, and just to confuse matters, 'our' James Dillon had two regiments, one of horse and one of foot, and it isn't always clear which is which. With that caveat, I hope I have this right... James  was born in 1600, the eighth son of Theobald, 1st Viscount Dillon, and Eleanor, the daughter of Sir Edward Tuite of Tuitestown, Co. Westmeath, and widow of William Tuite of Monilea.  His father, Theobald, was appointed chief sergeant, and general collector and receiver, for Connacht and Thomond in May 1582. In 1585 he acquired ownership of the
Read more

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B  Montrose and the Irish Brigade Pa
Read more

Welcome

-
Image
Welcome to 'Keep Your Powder Dry'. This blog is my way of storing a load of information that I have found whilst researching my British Civil War 15mm wargames armies. It is no way exhaustive, nor do I claim that it will be completely definitive. I expect to make errors, if you spot one please tell me. This blog is mainly a lesson in self-indulgence: it is mine, for me. But I do of course welcome visitors, and if it helps you out then I consider that a bonus. Why is it called 'Keep Your Powder Dry'? There is a phrase often attributed to Oliver Cromwell ("put your trust in God and keep your powder dry") in a whole host of situations. The first time he was alleged to have said it to his soldiers was at Edgehill, only he arrived too late for the battle. Sadly no actual, real evidence that he ever said it exists. But Richard Harris did, in the film. Which is good enough for me. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting
Read more