Category:LHE

THE VILLAGE GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

It is not commonly understood that the living history encampment, or the village, is where the public have the most contact with the Society.

Whilst no one would suggest that the public do not come to see the fights, and great debate has passed in respect of how important the village is to the Society, it cannot be denied that the average member of the public has more contact with village inhabitants than with pure warriors.

This is a simple matter of fact because at the average show combat activities in total only last some 90 to 120 minutes, whereas the village is on display from 10:00am till 5:00pm. The village has much more exposure.

There is also the fact that the public cannot stop a battle mid-flight and ask a warrior what he is doing. The action, whilst exciting and spectacular, is momentary and if anything goes wrong or isn’t quite right, it is not necessarily noticed. The battles are in any case not perfectly realistic ; after all no one actually dies.

Quite the contrary position exists within the village where the public have as much time as they want to closely scrutinise our displays and have direct contact with the re-enactors; they ask questions and handle goods, and whilst we cannot perfectly recreate the 10th century the connection to past reality is at its best in an authentic village setting. We are so good at this that on several occasions the client for the show has booked the Vikings because of our authenticity and attention to detail for village and crafts alone.

Obviously with so much of the Society’s reputation relying on the impression left by the village, we need some method of ensuring that our standards are maintained ; hence the need for this documentation and the associated rules and regulations.

These pages are intended to outline the village rules, and more importantly outline our expectations of behaviour and standards; and at the same time draw together the various aspects of other Society legislation which affects, or is informed by the village activities.

 Advice and further information on rules where considered necessary is shown in italic text.

If anyone has any questions in respect of the contents of these pages then they may contact the Society Village Co-ordinator through the usual channels.

As people change more often than information these pages try to avoid naming people directly; instead positions within the Society hierarchy are identified and the person filling that role at any moment in time can be found by reference to the listings given within the Runestaff magazine.

Further reading :-

You can find the structure of the Living History Team here.