Visitors from the Past

A pondering highwayman.

A new news story is up! Please see ...

Looking forward to Autumn | Visitors from the Past As per usual during the school summer holidays, I am doing a couple of weekends at Skipton Castle, and have been on a few adventures with my boys (including having just completed the West Highland Way).

I am about to start visiting schools in the new academic year, but I kept myself rooted in the past with reenactments over the summer holidays, and two weekends at Skipton Castle. Fun times! See https://visitors-from-the-past.co.uk/two-visits-two-characters-but-only-one-castle/

https://www.facebook.com/skiptoncastle/posts/673750588130006

Last weekend was the first of my Skipton Castle weekends this year, and I am so glad to be back again after the time of pestilence and plague. See the story at: https://visitors-from-the-past.co.uk/a-highwaymans-home-is-his-castle/

I really miss my pre-pandemic summer holiday weekends at Skipton. I must contact the 'castellan' and see how things are now! I am getting lots of enquiries about school visits for Autumn term (and beyond), but being Colonel Sir John Mallory with a whole castle at my disposal was great fun.

I am having some great days of late, and am so glad to be back in action after the long disruption of lock downs and closures! Last Friday I visited a school near Kendal (quite the trip) as Nevison the highwayman and had a lovely day. The news story is here: https://visitors-from-the-past.co.uk/nevison-goes-north/ And the school's version is here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=5065295173534477&id=526835544047152

I am having great fun this year on my visits to schools. Here's the latest news story on my website, all about the very lovely Tuesday I had this week, being Sir William Petty in Doncaster.

https://visitors-from-the-past.co.uk/londons-burning-in-doncaster/

My first of 'several many' Guy Fawkes bookings is on Wednesday, and they will run through to late November. So I have been busy studying my thick file of notes, and making sure all his stuff is in working order (in a de-mould, stitch in time, de-rust, etc., sort of way). And this is just some of what he wears and carries!

Can you spot a powder flask? Spurs? Rapier? Lantern? Main-gauche? Costrel? Jack? Gauntlets? Match cord? Now I have a bag to pack with the fiddlier trappings! Oh, and some secret messages to write with lemon juice!

Phew! Finished at last. With 51 buttons (49 real buttonholes plus 12 fake buttonholes on the cuffs). Woollen cloth, linen lining, linen thread, pewter buttons.

Still not sure I am getting the positioning of the sleeves right, but slightly too late to correct now. Maybe on the next coat?

I have a highwayman day coming up, and will be glad Nevison now has a new coat with not only fits him better but befits a gentleman of the road.

Huzzah! Bookings are starting to come in again, and hopefully the Autumn term will see a full(ish) return to (almost) normal.

Meanwhile, with more time than usual on my hands, I am in the second week of making a new coat for Nevison the highwayman. Only 48 handstitched button holes to go, overstitching all the edges by hand (I don't know the proper terms), sewing up the bottom nice and neat and 54 more buttons to put on.

I know a tailor would work much quicker than me, but I have to go at this really steady pace to avoid disasters. I already made the usual mistake of cutting one panel out the wrong way around, but I had bought enough woollen cloth to cover this now standard error. I dread the thought of messing up one button hole!

It's real wool, lined in linen, stictched in linen thread, with pewter buttons! I went for darkest blue rather than the somewhat less historically accurate black (black was expensive and would fade easily when worn outside so often).

I (Nevison) needed this new one as the one I made 20 years ago seems to have mysteriously shrunk on me. I guess all the pies, puddings and pasties Nevison's been enjoying have had their effect. Oh, and I tore it on a pistol, as one does! A 'gentleman of the road' should look wealthy. What's the point of being a highwayman if one cannot follow the fashion?

I have made it basically the same as the old one, although the pockets are different and the whole thing is just a smidgen larger! The part-completed, new one is on the viewer's right.

Think of me and the 48 button holes I have yet to sew!

Just in time for my re-restart (so many lockdowns!) Sir William Petty now has a new hat to go with his new wig. The wig is based on his very own as worn a portrait, while the hat is based on the one seen in this painting of King Charles II. I had it made bigger than my head, to better accomodate the big wig. Also, if my head grows some more, it'll still fit!

Do see my website https://visitors-from-the-past.co.uk/ for all my different characters, and Facebook message me or get in touch by e-mail ( [email protected] ) or through my website 'find out more' contact page to discuss a visit to your school in Yorkshire or the surrounding areas.