By Howard Giles      Click on any picture for an enlargement and explanatory text.

What is re-enactment?

In exempting re-enactment from most of the clauses within the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, the British government recently officially defined re-enactment for the first time, as "any presentation or other event held for the purpose of re-enacting an event from the past or of illustrating conduct from a particular time or period in the past". In effect, re-enactment is a recreation of the past - any date prior to today's - involving military or non-military recreations of pretty much any kind. These are usually staged as a leisure activity by enthusiasts, ie as a hobby, although there is a small yet increasing number of professionals who offer services to heritage venues, schools and the like. The term "Re-enactment" thus covers a very wide range of activities, to include the restaging of battles, military displays, everyday life through the ages, living history scenarios and encampments, as well as a wide range of historical entertainments.

Re-enactments can vary from a small-scale recreation of the past in incredible detail by a single person (for example, a Roman soldier or an C18th gardener) to larger scale historical events including multi-period ancient to modern era "spectaculars" staged by organisers such as EventPlan Limited, designed to entertain as well as educate. Every year, the historical eras and themes grow larger as more and more of the past is explored. Castles, historic houses, parks and other venues increasingly turn to re-enactment and living history groups as exciting, colourful attractions. The film and TV world also utilises the skills of top groups, including through professional agencies such as Historical Film Services.

Re-enactors come in all shapes and sizes, from every background, and increasingly, from all over the world. Who they are, and how old, is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if a re-enactor is a doctor or a dustman, an office or manual worker, the only thing that really counts is enthusiasm.  Although the majority of re-enactors are male, families often take part too and in some groups, depending on the levels of authenticity agreed, women are permitted to fight as soldiers (a quite popular choice for them). There is a great deal of positive escapism involved, with re-enactors sometimes portraying people or soldiers of entirely different nationalities to their own, and as far back in history as they choose, from the Stone Age onwards.

Re-enactment and living history offers participants a unique chance to enjoy recreating history within a great social scene, and for the millions of people who watch these enactments, a fascinating window on the past in the form of great entertainment. Of course, no-one can expect these re-enactments to be entirely accurate, for certain things (disease, filth, squalor, battlefield wounds and general gore) would be far too shocking to experience "for real" at most live recreations. And although it can be argued that as a result, re-enactments can't be truly accurate so cannot be taken too seriously, they certainly offer many people their best opportunity to see, smell, touch, feel and generally experience the essential essence of past eras. Of course, its hard to beat Hollywood films for recreating the past on an epic scale through computer generated imagery - but for a real, usually much more accurate, 3 dimensional interactive recreation, re-enactment is hard to beat.

Re-enactment as we know it today appears a relatively modern invention, but in fact its roots go back far into the past.

Re-enactment as a concept is as old as civilisation itself. As part of their infamous public games, the Romans refought past victories in the Coliseum (unfortunately for the combatants, usually to the death), even flooding the arena to recreate a naval battle.

Medieval tournaments shared many aspects of re-enactment (especially when "health and safety" rules were increasingly introduced to try to keep the combatants from killing each other, either purposefully or accidentally), but on the whole tourneys were really a sport for the rich - albeit with a wide following - so perhaps really was more of a sport than re-enactment as we understand the term today.

Mock skirmishes and military displays staged before audiences seem to have been quite popular in the C17th. On one such occasion in 1635 the London Trained Bands successfully demonstrated their prowess in front of King Charles I, but things went horribly wrong when mingling with the public afterwards. Someone lit up a pipe near the gunpowder store and a stray spark caused an explosion that left a dozen dead and over fifty injured! This obviously didn't put anyone off though as in 1638 a stylised battle between Christians and Moors, entitled Mars hys triumph, was staged in London. In 1645, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarian troops chose Blackheath on which to restage one of their recent victories, although still actively at war with surviving Royalist forces.

Fetes, pageants and entertainments (often with a historical theme) were staged in villages and great country houses throughout Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An early example took place in 1821, when the Duke of Buckingham staged mock Napoleonic naval battles on his lake at Wotton House for the amusement of family and friends, using boats and firing real cannon balls!  These are occasionally dug up on the bank of the lake even today. The Duke of Newcastle later did much the same at Clumber Park, using small cannon and a 40 ton, third scale frigate (eventually sunk by accident by boisterous children during WWII!). Victorian aristocrats would sometimes hold parties and dress up in costume and antique armour - for example, in 1840 Lord Glasgow organised a full medieval style joust at Kelburn Castle in Scotland. Sadly, bad weather ruined it, to the (financial) embarrassment of all those involved.

In 1876 and a whole continent away, survivors of George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry returned to the scene of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana to re-enact their part in the disaster for the camera. Through a series of static poses, the soldiers recreated their harrowing experience for posterity. This was still a long way from live re-enactment as we know it now but it wasn't long until previously extremely hostile Native Americans found themselves re-enacting the very same battle to huge international audiences (and early movie cameras) as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which set out to recreate scenes from what was already seeming a lost, distant era. Perhaps the closest so far to modern audience-orientated re-enactment, the show was a huge success and toured for years in America and Europe. However, what the Native American participants thought of all this can only be guessed at.

18 years after the defence of Rorkes Drift in Natal, 100 or so members of the Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteers recreated the famous battle as part of a Grand Military Fete in February 1895 at the Cheltenham Winter Gardens. The objective of the fete was to raise funds for their new drill hall. 25 redcoats took on 75 "Zulus" in the re-enactment.

Many years after the American Civil War of 1861-65, camps and gentle "re-enactments" were organised on the old battlefields for the veterans of both sides, who would take part together without any animosity towards their once deadly enemies. These continued until all the old soldiers had faded away and had become part of the history they had made.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Royal Tournament, Aldershot Tattoo and other similar British shows often recreated events from earlier eras, sometimes on an epic scale in front of delighted crowds. Click on the picture (left) to see a page from the programme for the 1934 Aldershot Tattoo, which amongst other displays featured scenes from a large-scale recreation of the Siege of Namur, 1695. One wonders at the effort that must have been put into producing hundreds of uniforms and other items of kit for just a 6-day show. This fondness for past glories continued in 1935 with large scale and extraordinarily well-presented depictions of the Manual and Grenade Exercise for eighteenth century Grenadiers, royalty through the ages and scenes showing how battles changed from Waterloo to the modern era. These annual shows must have been truly very impressive. Less politically correct but none the less rather amusing, old postcards show more re-enactments of the Zulu War, with "Zulus" depicted by squaddies, swathed head to foot in ill-fitting black body stockings!

For more on British military tattoos and pageants, see the interesting article by Graham Priest that appears in Issue 30 (April/May 2004) of Skirmish magazine.

Meanwhile, history was being manipulated elsewhere for sinister and ultimately murderous purposes. In the 1930s the Nazis used allegedly historical pageants to "recreate" a bogus past to reinforce their belief in a (mythical) golden Ayrian age. The ghastly results of this creed are only too well known. World War Two put an end to re-enactments for many years, and it would only be when peace and relative affluence coincided that re-enactments began again. Whilst the idea of dressing up and superficially recreating the past was clearly established, it would be the early 1960s before historical re-enactment as we know it today truly developed.

The catalyst for the creation of modern-day re-enactment was the centennial commemorations of the American Civil War, naturally enough held in the United States. Although the standard of authenticity of costume, weaponry and drill was at first fairly lamentable - indeed, in many cases downright dangerous - these early re-enactments of famous battles caught the nation’s imagination and started a trend that quickly spread first to Britain and later to mainland Europe.

Re-enactment in the USA continues to develop on an epic scale. In 1998 perhaps as many as 25,000 “troops” took part in a huge recreation of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, probably the largest re-enactment in history  and not matched for size since. large re-enactments were also staged in 2003 and 2008, including contingents from Britain.  In many respects this illustrates the growing international nature of historical re-enactment, with enthusiasts willing to travel far and wide to take part in events.

The American Revolutionary War, French and Indian Wars and other eras of United States history are also very popular, although events are relatively small by Civil War standards. There are also small groups dedicated to other historical periods, from the Romans onwards.

British re-enactment

In 1971 The Sabre Society was formed, a Napoleonic group, followed in 1976 by the Napoleonic Association, the latter swiftly growing in size to become the largest grouping of re-enactors representing the era in the UK.  Both societies continue to re-enact their chosen era today, the Sabre Society having become the Association Brittanique de la Garde Imperiale in 1983.  Viking and Medieval groups also formed in the Seventies and by the end of the decade there were numerous societies recreating a number of different eras, although generally operating in complete isolation from one another.

At this time there were some general trends which most groups followed. They primarily met to refight battles and because it was primarily a hobby for participants, the groups didn’t think about the audience or occasional sponsor as much as they could have. Although very enthusiastic, most also had yet to tackle their relatively poor standards of authenticity. However, this all began to change with a new concept - authentic living history. First class groups such as The Ermine Street Guard (Romans) - still regularly staging displays -  and The White Company (15th Century) - sadly no longer with us - showed how this could be achieved. The scene was set for a major leap forward if a catalyst could be found.

English Heritage and the Special Events Unit

Until 1984, staging re-enactments around the country was by its very nature rather a fragmented and fairly localised affair. Battles and other events were staged by re-enactment groups at stately homes, local pageants and other venues, but there was no organised co-ordination or any national programme as such. However, in the autumn of that year experienced re-enactor Howard Giles joined the newly formed government agency, English Heritage, which had taken over all the Department of the Environment’s English historic properties. Appointed with a remit to make EH castles and historic houses more interesting, Howard's belief in and backing for historical re-enactment would soon have a major impact on the development of the hobby.

An experimental programme of historical events on English Heritage properties was arranged for 1985 and 1986. These were such a success that in January 1987 the Special Events Unit (SEU) was formed under Howard's direction to further develop the concept of re-enactment and, increasingly, living history displays, as visitor attractions.

The ambitious programme (featuring a variety of events, not all re-enactment-orientated, but emphasising it) increased in size each year from 100 events in 1987 to 700 in 1999, with a special programme of over 1000 during Millennium year. Significantly, events were responsible for recruiting and retaining many thousands of EH members every year and generating a "family friendly" image for the organisation.

When booking re-enactment groups, Howard and his team actively encouraged improvements in authenticity and presentation, balanced by audience-orientated scenarios to maximise visitor enjoyment. Groups willing to embrace this more professional attitude were offered events at EH properties and in return gained interesting venues to display at and professional standards of planning on site.

The programme could never have succeeded without the hard work and dedication of Howard's fellow members of the Special Events Unit, particularly Coral Sealey, Helen Christou aka "Peeps", Karen Cooper, Thomas Cardwell, and later, Jane Dobre, Natasha Lees, Mark Selwood and Joanna Coope. The same goes for the re-enactors themselves - Howard has always been a keen exponent of the hobby and has never forgotten that without the enthusiasm of the many participating re-enactors, most of English Heritage's (and now, EventPlan's) most memorable events could never have happened.

Although the SEU was unique in organising a nationwide programme, Howard was far from being the only professional to realise the potential for re-enactment, so all over the country historical displays were increasingly staged at castles, historic houses, county shows and fetes. Living history displays became increasingly popular, with non-military themes being developed. In Wales CADW and later, Historic Scotland, followed English Heritage's lead and introduced historical events programme, although on a smaller scale appropriate to the historic properties they were responsible for.  Independent annual events such as Kentwell Hall’s  Tudor living history and the Tewkesbury medieval festival became firmly established.

The 1990s

English Heritage's policy of working with re-enactors for mutual benefit encouraged the formation of numerous new groups in the UK, which in turn influenced existing ones, especially following SEU’s introduction of innovative multi-period events in 1992. In 1996 Howard and his team staged History in Action, an ambitious multi-era event featuring a significant number of groups for the first time. For the next 7 years, History and Action grew in size and scope, becoming the largest and most spectacular event of its kind in the world.

With a combination of English Heritage sites and other organisers staging well over a thousand events each year, the nineties witnessed a true explosion of creativity in the world of re-enactment. The formation of the National Association of Re-enactment Societies (NAReS), also marked a major advance. Leading groups sat round the table together for the first time to discuss issues concerning the hobby. Re-enactors now had an "official" voice that could respond to proposed government initiatives that could affect the hobby, such as gun control. Although muskets and cannon hardly constitute a threat to public order, it is all too easy for laws aimed at criminals to impact on this harmless and popular hobby. NAReS, together with English Heritage and other bodies have to date successfully shielded re-enactment from inappropriate legislation, the most recent "battle" being to successfully protect re-enactment from the sweeping restrictions of the Violent Crime Reduction Act.

Throughout the 1990s, re-enactment continued to change. Standards of authenticity became higher and higher and even previously sceptical academics accepted that living history could play a role to play in keeping history alive.

The very large battle re-enactment societies such as The Sealed Knot and English Civil War Society continued to flourish, but maintaining the level of membership began to prove more difficult as members discovered that unlike in earlier days where choice was limited, there were now many other eras to re-enact and groups to form or join. This also occurred to event sponsors and organisers, who were increasingly looking for something new and, preferably, cheaper to stage. These trends towards smaller and more diverse re-enactments continue to represent a major challenge for long established larger groups to this day, although for sheer spectacle, large-scale battles are difficult to eclipse. Perhaps only large-scale multi-period shows are more popular.

Re-enactment, primarily Napoleonic, began to be increasingly popular in mainland Europe. Indeed, at the end of the 1980s it came as quite a surprise to many to discover that behind the Iron Curtain, thriving medieval and Napoleonic groups had been developing in parallel to the West, despite fewer resources and more restrictions. Czech re-enactors even made complete sets of armour and weapons out of Skoda cars (which, they joked, was actually the best use for the latter!). With the fall of communism, all these enthusiasts began to meet up.  Of all periods of history, it was Napoleonic era that has brought the most nationalities together.  Commencing in 1990, the major re-enactments held every few years on the actual battlefield at Waterloo in Belgium feature groups from as far away as Russia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. Recreations also began to be staged at Borodino near Moscow, a cataclysmic battle from Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

Having largely achieved what he set out to do at English Heritage and having been responsible for the staging of over 5,000 events, Howard Giles decided to leave after 16 years in September 2000 to found EventPlan Limited, still with the aim of organising events that both audience and performers alike would enjoy, but this time on behalf of new clients including TV and film channels such as BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, Sky and Channel 4.

EventPlan’s first major project was the very unusual and hugely successful Battle of Orgreave, which on June 17 2001 recreated the climactic clash between police and NUM miners almost exactly 17 years before in 1984. Utilising 800 re-enactors from many societies and local extras including Orgreave “veterans”, convincing forces of riot police and miners were created for what many have described as the most realistic live re-enactment ever staged in Britain, which was filmed for Channel 4 by Hollywood director Mike Figgis. At Orgreave, EventPlan set a benchmark for future re-enactments. The Channel 4 film of this event was shown in October 2002 and repeated thereafter. Click here for a review.

In 2002, EventPlan staged it's very own Kirby Hall-style multi-period event, the London Historical Action Spectacular. It was a huge hit with audiences, earning 99.5% visitor satisfaction from the independent post-event survey's respondents. Since then, EventPlan's programme has grown larger each year with new and repeat clients, numerous multi and single era events successfully staged and around 100,000 people enjoying them annually. Click for details of EventPlan's  2009 programme. 

Re-enactment today

It is thought that over 20,000 people now belong to re-enactment societies within the UK alone. Whole families are discovering how enjoyable it is to spend their weekends recreating distant eras. The quality and variety of events continues to improve, offering venues an incredible choice of displays from small living histories up to enormous multi-period shows. Many award-winning groups continue to develop and demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of their chosen era that even academics would envy.

Rising disposable income amongst many re-enactors has encouraged the creation of a whole new mini-industry of craftspeople who supply period clothing, weaponry, pottery and other props, whilst expensive armoured vehicles and jeeps now regularly augment WWII displays.

Anniversary events are proving especially popular.  A major re-enactment was held at Waterloo in June 2005, on the 190th anniversary of the great battle (even though, as usual, Belgian local government politics complicated arrangements). In 2006 a snowy 200th recreation of the decisive battle of Jena was held in Germany, and as the 200th anniversary of the Napoleonic Wars continue, more recreations are expected and no doubt will continue until the last battle of that long and bloody series of wars is recreated once again at Waterloo, 200 years on in June 2015. Anniversary re-enactments of the War of Spanish Succession (which raged throughout Europe 300 years ago) are also currently staged, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Recreating an earlier but crucial moment in British history, English Heritage organised major international re-enactments of the Battle of Hastings 1066, in October 1990, 1995,  2000 and 2006. At the latter, participants travelled from all over the world to join around 3,000 others in defending Senlac Hill with King Harold, or attacking up the long grassy slope alongside Duke William of Normandy. Indeed, restaging these battles on the exact spot whenever possible (quite usual in Europe but rare in the United States due to long-established National Park Service policy) always adds a truly unique feel to these occasions. English Civil War battles and sieges are regularly recreated, as is the famous Battle of Bosworth in 1485 - which saw the last death in battle of an English King - Richard III. In Britain, a series of 550th anniversary recreations of battles from the Wars of the Roses (which Bosworth ended) are expected to commence soon. Meanwhile, huge American Civil War anniversary battles generally take place on a 5 year cycle, with around 12,000 participants at the 2008 145th anniversary recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 (extremely impressive but probably partly due to the credit crunch, only half the scale of the "mother of all re-enactments" in 1998, mentioned above). But size isn't everything and increasingly, historic houses and other clients are often opting for smaller but very high quality displays.

On the whole, re-enactment has never looked back since its humble beginnings despite ever tightening government controls on the ownership and use of cannon, muskets, rifles and gunpowder, as well as increasing insurance premiums generated by the current and rather distasteful "no win no fee" litigation culture. But with a huge variety of eras available and more quality groups to work with than ever before, together with increasing opportunities for international events, the future of re-enactment should prove extremely exciting so long as potentially damaging government legislation  takes note of the legitimate needs of re-enactors, such as with the Violent Crime Reduction Act. But life is never simple and new threats to re-enactors' freedom to recreate history are likely in future

Proposed government bans on deactivated firearms and curved swords

On 10th January 2008 the Home Secretary announced that she proposes to ban deactivated firearms. In a letter to the author of this article dated 13 February 2008, the Home Office stated that they "will shortly consult Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and other stakeholders on the best way forward, which allows genuine collectors to continue while depriving criminals of the opportunity to misuse deactivated guns".  Although bona fide re-enactors are almost certainly likely to be exempted, dealers that re-enactors buy from may well be driven out of business. This would leave re-enactors little scope to buy deactivated weapons, the only option for many WWII enthusiasts who of course cannot buy "real" machine guns and similar illegal "Section 5" firearms for their living history displays.

Since gun crime involving deactivated firearms is actually extremely rare (only 8 out of 10,053 gun-related crimes in 2005-06 according to official figures), the Government has been accused of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut whilst not doing enough to curb crime featuring real, lethal firearms. Only time will tell if common sense will prevail, but in the meantime collectors and re-enactors are being urged to write to the Home Office and their MPs as "stakeholders", to lobby for a sensible solution that will allow specialist dealers of period military and other low risk deactivated weapons to stay in business, and for enthusiasts to be able to purchase them. If this is not successful, the outlook could be bleak for the many excellent C20th (and other era) living history groups who rely on deactivated weapons to make their displays realistic and meaningful.

The Government has also announced plans to ban Japanese samurai-style swords, because these have been the weapon of choice in a number of violent incidents involving criminals or mentally unstable people. However, the Government's definition of a samurai sword - "a curved sword" - is currently so loose that it threatens to accidentally ban a huge variety of other bladed weapons including early medieval swords, some examples of British cavalry sabres and even Sikh ceremonial weapons. Further, there is a fear that the blunt, relatively safe weapons generally used by re-enactors will  be incorrectly regarded by overzealous policemen or other officials as real weapons rather than the theatrical props they actually are. Once again civil servants are being accused of poor drafting of proposed legislation but with a cross-party parliamentary committee carefully examining the issue, it is to be hoped that the final legislation will be more appropriately worded so that re-enactment does not continue to accidentally suffer "death by a thousand cuts".

Acknowledgements

The story of the 1635 display mishap was rediscovered by Malcolm Atkin and published in True Relation, the journal of the Fairfax Battalia. A short account by Mick Kippin of the 1895 re-enactment of Rorkes Drift appeared in the May/June 2003 issue of Armourer magazine.

Comments and anecdotes

This brief history can only scratch the surface of a fascinating hobby, especially with regard to the origins of modern re-enactment. If for example you were a re-enactor in "the early years", we would be interested in any reminiscences and/or pictures as we would like to expand our coverage of this era if we can.

Interested in joining a re-enactment society?

Historical re-enactment is one of Britain's fastest growing hobbies. It's enormous fun and can often involve the whole family if wished. Our free-admission multi-period events bring together a number of Britain's top groups, so if you are interested in finding out more, coming along to events like this can give you instant overview of the hobby. Simply ask any of the re-enactors what their society could offer you. Some groups set up information tents with this very purpose in mind.

With so many groups to choose from it's important to spend a little time deciding what era you are most interested in and how you might get on with groups you see. One thing's for sure - re-enactors are immensely friendly people and are nearly always seeking new members to swell the ranks! So whether you fancy being a Saxon warrior, a civil war soldier fighting for King or Parliament, a Napoleonic redcoat, a camp follower or one of hundreds of other roles, these events are certainly worth visiting to find out more! Click the links above or go to our events page  for more information.

Alternatively, you can discover the huge variety of groups and eras by exploring the many web sites and publications devoted to the hobby.

Living history and re-enactment magazines

Try these magazines for interesting articles and pictures from the world of re-enactment:

Living History Digest. A5 mono. Published twice a year at "The Anchorage", 56 Wareham Road, Lychett Matravers, Poole, Dorset BH16 6DS. Tel: 01202 622115. Email: LHRBangman@aol.com. Editor: Roger Emmerson. Subscriptions: £5.50p annually or £2.95p per issue. Contact the editor for further details.

In addition, Military Illustrated and Gunmart magazines usually include a regular re-enactment feature.

There's a huge number of re-enactor web sites to explore. Take a look at those featured on our site - click into the list of groups featured on individual event pages for starters, or try these re-enactment portal sites:

Histrenact     Living History.co.uk    

Or if you'd like to buy interesting historical reproductions, find out more via www.domusantonius.co.uk, an on-line historical traders' directory.

If you are particularly interested in C17th re-enactment and living history, check out the excellent  Historyact site, an on-line guide to English Civil War re-enactment for the public and sponsors.

Travelling to an event and staying over?

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Updated 7 November 2008