James Adams started medieval reenactment ce. 1983, quickly acquiring his first outfit and shield. Note - This is the last time you'll see him wearing a wrist watch.

 

Spent many years with the group 1066 performing at many shows and having the fundamentals of the art beaten into me, slowly and painfully by the infamous...

 

		...Peter Lee. A true legend, for reasons both good and bad who dominated the medieval scene until his unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your perspective) death in 1993 in a tragic car accident.
Amongst the many shows performed by 1066, one included the arrival to Sydney of a Viking Knarr from Denmark, the show performed at Circular Quay in the mid 1980s.

 

Towards the end of the 80's a number of my scouts wanted to get involved but were too young for 1066; so I trained them separately in the scout hall. Little did I realise how events would unfold.

 

In the early days I performed a few small shows for scout groups, certainly not realising where that would lead.

 

Back then I even borrowed a lot of the equipment from Peter Lee.

 

Here is a young Tim Rixon with his first shield (which he still has hanging on his wall if I'm not mistaken).

 

The early conventions at Maldon Victoria (ce. 1988) with its quaint but undersized fort. Note - the radius of the area inside a fort should exceed the length of a spear.

 

From the humble beginning of my small bunch of ex-scouts...

 

...a mighty group sprang.

 

Fully armoured and equipped.

 

Acquiring new members such as Marcus Lurens

 

and his brother Tor (Chris), seen in the middle here.

 

Our banquets were a joy, especially thanks to the skills of our cook Robert Prior

 

...and our fight days at Matthews park...

 

...most impressive.

 

Also especially those days in our happy hunting ground of Penrose forest.