Fortress Wales - May The Fourth Be With You

French Resistance

"Sorry, we need to go. World War Two starts in five minutes." As soon as he said it, Keith immediately realised how bizarre it sounded. There we were, inside Caldicot Castle, discussing long bows with a medieval archer, with only a few minutes to make our way out and around, through the Tudor camp and Indian reservation, to the display area where another battle was due to start. We were at Fortress Wales, the largest multi-period re-enactment event in the country.

We arrived just in time to see the German storm troopers take up their defensive position, before the allied troops appeared on the scene with all guns blazing. The careful plodding of the troops betrayed the advanced age of most of the combatants in the mock battle, but they still threw themselves into the affray with often alarming gusto, firing off round after round of blanks and lobbing the odd grenade which exploded with a flash followed by a dense cloud of smoke. Their theatrical death collapses and complete lack of movement afterwards, made us concerned that they might not be faking. One old boy lay motionless for long after his compatriots got back up again at the end of the display, but it turned out he just needed a helping hand to get upright.

Captain Mainwaring

From World War II, we stepped back a hundred years to the Ragged Victorians, a motley crew of teeth stained hags, dubious "gentlemen" and an over-enthusiastic Peeler. Their amusing display started with a bare-knuckle prize fight, which had one young lad, sat on his dad's shoulders, completely convinced was real, as he shouted out in alarm and anger at the obvious foul play being missed by the referee. Meanwhile, grubby artful dodgers and flirty dirty ladies of the night mingled with the crowd looking for a wallet to

pick or a customer for their affections.



Then it was across the Atlantic to the native indian dance display in a teepee village, followed by a re-enactment of a battle from the War of Independence in the main arena. Then in the final parade, to close the show, we were able to see the other groups whose performances we had missed earlier, like the medieval knights and their ladies, the Tudors, the Vietnam War and the Great War re-enactors. There were so many participants that they probably outnumbered the spectators.


As we left Caldicot Castle, Jan commented that she would like to visit it for both days next time, there were that many excellent photo opportunities as the re-enactors strived for authenticity in everything on display.

But it wasn't the last war, played out by actors, we watched that day. It was May the fourth (be with you) aka Jedi Day, and Sky was showing all six Star Wars films in celebration. So we had started the day with German stormtroopers and ended it with Imperial Army stormtroopers. It has to be said that they seemed about as competent fighters as the old-boy re-enactors had been.