This is the part of the webpage where I get to be even more self-centred and narcissistic than on the rest...
I'm a UK reenactor who seems to spend excessive amounts of her summer holiday on the manor at Kentwell. This will be my third season there, and I'd been reenacting for about three years with the Fairfax Battalia before that.
This website is born, in part, out of my first few hours with Fairfax. I'd turned up on the friday evening having arranged to borrow clothes off various other group members. The lady who (bless her) had been good enough to lend this newbie her hand-made kit turned to me and said carelessly, "If it's too small don't worry, just move the button over."I still remember the utter panic that set in: I was camping. I hadn't brought needle and thread. Did everyone else have needle and thread?! How could I have been so stupid as to not bring needle and thread??!?
And how on earth do you move a button, anyway?
So I went on the field and was immediately hooked. I spent twenty quid - a lot of money to the student I was then - on two metres of cream linen and two metres of pink, and set about making a shift and a petticoat. I went at it with huge enthusiasm and an utter lack of knowledge; when I look back at that kit now I laugh, but I'm still wearing that first petticoat on the manor.
Skip forward a few years. I stagger back home from the first open day and confront the costume notes. I get exactly the same sinking feeling: people expect me to understand this, and I don't. I freely admit that that had far more to do with my exhaustion and incompetance than the notes themselves, but I'm hoping this webpage will serve as a useful adjunct to those who are similarly overwhelmed.
If anything isn't clear then I would be really (really) grateful if you could contact me and let me know. Similarly, if you have any questions at all. I can be grabbed on the manor or reached by email to: f (dot) lea (at) virgin (dot) net. I've spaced it in such a silly way to hopefully distract the spambots.
Acknowledgements... I am a complete beginner to the world of html. This webpage was put together using information from Boogie Jack's and the fonts which make up the headings and links are from the Font Garden. It probably wouldn't look so pretty without help and ego-stroking from Kirsti. Any errors are my own.