The Adventures of the Walkers No.2

Off on their holidays in the N.E. the Walkers approach St. Cuthbert's Cave in Northumbria , the site of where St Cuthbert's coffin was lodged when it was removed from Holy Island after the raids from the Vikings .

It also appears in the TV detective drama 'Vera' 

 

Wargaming Humour No. 18

Shamelessly pinched from Facebook.

 

In which I ride out on my Hobby Horse again .

Further to my blog entry Tin Soldiering On: Needing the eye of faith . (A jaunt on my hobby horse) (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) I promised (threatened) to post some more photos of the supposed Rome signal station . Here is a better view of the earthworks showing the double ditches looking South just North of the summit .

From the summit looking NW , the location of the  Roman fort at Watercrook  is marked by the arrow . Note it is not as pleasant a day as my other set of photos with a coolish strong wind .

Looking the other way more or less due South , somewhere in the murk pointed out by the arrow is Lancaster which is the next fort - it is assumed the Romans used beacons for signaling, visibility must have been a problem then as well .

The Romans seem to have dug a couple of water cisterns down to the bed rock to gather rain water  , here is the southern one (looking south) - dog for scale -  in wet weather these still gather rain water .

Looking North from the summit , the remains of the two ditches are marked 1 and 2 and the northern cistern by the arrow - once more the dog obligingly gives scale to the photo .

The northern cistern (looking South) - the dog regularly drinks from these sites - I'm assuming they were dug out and kept clear in antiquity . Well that has got this hobby horse out of my system and I promise not to bother my readers with it again - I thank you for indulging an old man .

 

Sir Jakabus Wooley 'A Fyne Martialle Man'

I've got around to painting up Sir Jakabus Wooley a worthy opponent to Sir Brian Aldridge . Wooley learnt his career fighting in Germany and quickly rose to prominence serving under Gustavus  Adolphus , he was presented with a Marshals Baton personally by Gustavus which he is seen brandishing above ..

In the Felpersham Fine Arts Gallery there is an oil painting that is traditionally thought to be Sir Jakabus Wooley although there is no direct evidence for this and strangely for such a prominent person there does not appear to be any other contemporary portrayal .

 

Needing the eye of faith . (A jaunt on my hobby horse)

Just across the valley from where I live is a hill called (the) Helm . on the very summit there is what is believed to be a Roman signal station . Here you can see the rather stepped summit in the distance (looking South) this is formed by a double ditch dug to protect this side of the station , it being the most approachable - the ground falls steeply on the other three sides . I must ask the viewer to indulge my whimsy on this subject (a thoroughbred  'hobby horse' of mine) 

This year being  very dry the rampart walls  have become more visible as the grass has dried back . Rampart is probably a rather grand title as there is not much ground cover before you hit the bed rock . You can see the line of it running I think from 'A' to 'B' - looking NE- dog for scale .

The West rampart looking North - the ground falls steeply to the left . It runs from the bottom right in an arc to the top right . My guess was that it was only low post barrier as there cannot have been much foundations depths .

The North foundation looking East , there is the remnant of a modern fence crossing the site .

Looking South from the North edge , I think it runs from 'A' to 'B' on a slight arc - sadly no dog this time .

He obliges to return and pose for me on the top of the foundation which is quite prominent at this point.

A side view of the previous photo looking NW . The local Roman Fort is about a mile away in the valley floor near the river and the next nearest is at Lancaster on the river Lune , there is no direct line of sight between them , but from the summit both sites can be seen . Old maps describe it as 'the camp of the Brigantes' but it is to small a site for a native 'hill fort' and no near water supply (there are two rock cut cisterns on the site ) (which I must try and take a photo of ) . The fort in the valley (Watercrook) dates from about 100 AD - Lancaster's earlier as the main route more or less followed the route of the modern M6 motorway and Watercrook covered a side route that ran through the Lakes to Hardknot Fort and thence to the Cumbrian coast at Ravenglass. Somewhere I have a plan of the site which I must try and locate and blog . (I will now remove the saddle and water and groom my 'hobby horse') .

 

A palate cleansing .

Well there are probably a dozen things I should be painting , but I came across these old plastic Lord Of The Rings Numenorians and on a whim I started painting them up as a change - a sort of palate cleanser and I must admit I rather enjoyed doing them, so I've scrounged out some more from my 'box of shame' and will be painting them up as well . When G W did the LOTRs about 20 years ago I played it a lot so these may get me back into it again . 

The other thing that might have influenced my painting choice is the arrival of my copy of the above book - looks rather scholarly and perhaps more for the Tolkien nut than the casual reader - we will see how far I get with it ?........

 

Wargaming Humour No. 37a

Gleamed from the Interweb .

 

The casting down of the Greate Edifice of Beelzebub* .

With a greate crye Josiah Grundy leads his 'Roaring Boyes' forward against the Royalist fortifications, but are driven back by the garrison .

Nigel Pargetter leads the Horse forward on the right flank .

On the other flank the Royalist Shotte is driven back by the Dragoones , who then open fire on the advancing pike .

Colonele Danby leads the Pike forward under fire from the Sconce .

They too are repulsed as the sleeve of Shotte maneuver to open fire on the enemy . The Dragoones keep up a telling fire on the now halted Pike blocke.

The fire from the Shotte is telling and drives the Garrisone from the earthe workes .

Seeing an opportunity Josiah Grundy leads his Boyes into the empty earthworke ! , Henri Viscount Turenne leads a counter-attacke 

But a spirited defense by the 'Roaring Boyes' and a goode curseing by Ranting Josiah scatter them and the Forte is taken for Parliament (having a unit in good order inside the defense wins the scenario) 

 The Shotte and Pike have taken heavy losses on the Left and the Horse making no progress against the enemye Right, Nigel Pargetter has no option but to quit the Fielde . To make matters worse as they are retiring they are subject to a Sermone from Josiah Grundy . An excellent game! , although Nigel Pargetter was a bit unlucky as his cavalry kept failing their motivation rolls and the Pike and Shot took heavy casualties on the left and never rally got into action .

* Once again I am indebted to the University of Felpersham (TUF) and Miss Goodbody for finding this pamphlet commemorating the battle, at the bottom left you can just make out (click on the photo to enlarge) Jos Grundie Felpersum , presumably the author ,, Josiah was always one for self promotion . 

 

 

The Assault on the Greate Sconce at Loxley Barrett (setting the scene)

Having driven off the Royalist forces Col. Danby continues his march on Loxley Barrett to capture and waste the fortifications there.

The Parliamentary forces appear through the morning mists . On the left a unit of Dragoones , the main force 2 units of shotte and pike from Colonele Danby's Regiment of Foote . Leading the way is a Forlorne Hope with Josiah Grundy leading a unit of his 'Roaring Boyes' especially recruited by him and highly motivated by his religious fervor ! (unfortunately he has forgotten to provide them with any ammunition for their gunnes - thus they get an added advantage in hand to hand)

The 'Great Sconce' has a garrison of Shotte under the command of the Frenchman Henri Viscount Turenne .

In Loxley Barrett there is another unit of local Militia armed as Shotte .

There is also a unit of  pike from Sir Brianne Aldridge's Regiment . 

The force is Commanded by Nigel Pargetter who has managed to rally a Troope of his Horse and the remnants of the somewhat disgruntled Oxforde Horse .

I have made myself a couple of new over scale measuring sticks as I think playing on my bigger table needed speeding up and making a bit more dynamic . A report on the actual battle to follow soon .

 

'Evening all !'

On a rather dull day on the borders of the Great Patio the newly painted Armed Constabulary parade under the eye of Sergeant Dixon . Theses painted up really quickly due to them being mainly in dark blue uniforms . Hopefully they will be appearing on the tabletop soon .

 

Sir Jakabus Wooley .

I've decided I needed another Parliamentary Commander and here we have fresh from the wars in Germany, Sir Jakabus Wooley . He's a heavily converted plastic pikeman , with a Napoleonic hand and sword , a gunners head and masses of 'green stuff' .  Being if I remember rightly the father in law to Sir Brianne Alderidge there is definately going to be some ill feeling there ! . I'll hopefully get him painted next week .

 

Armed Constabulary

 

I was sorting out my casting bits and pieces box and due to the vagaries of the Prince August molds I found I had 6 spare bodies and wondered what I should do with them . I don't need any more infantry , but I thought I could paint them up as armed policemen , so I cast up some more arms and heads to make up the required number for a unit of 6 for 'AGW' . I've always found the old Prince August 'toy soldiers' hard to fit together and they aways take lots of super glue and 'green stuff' to get them finished , so these are the  models read to clean up when the 'green stuff' sets , undercoat and hopefully painted up next week .

Painting other peoples figures

 

Things are on hold here at the moment as I'm painting up some figures for 'A' , they are 1866 Bavarians in 28mm from North Star . It's a while since I painted any 28mm figures so it was a bit of a culture shock - soooo small compared with 54mm or even 40mm - rather hard work .  (click on photo to enlarge)