Please view our Terms of Business.
Running a Show
Timing
We feel that it is important for all our displays to start on time and that tardiness is very unprofessional. To this end, our Living History Exhibit is always ready for public view at least half an hour before the site is open. Our combatants expect to muster for battle at least three quarters of an hour in advance of the time announced.
Programming
The Society regularly arranges a wide range of events in places as far apart as Scandinavia and Ireland. We are fully capable of organising and arranging a complete ten-day programme whilst working closely with our client to make a seamless, entertaining and educational product that will be remembered for years to come. Such a programme would include the provision of costumed personnel for press calls, publicity and corporate entertaining for actual or potential sponsors in advance of the event. Naturally, we can provide input on a smaller scale in line with our client's requirements.
Audio
The Society feels that the importance of the audio aspects of a show is often underestimated and normally supplies its own high-quality sound system. All our military arena events are fully narrated by a speaker of great experience. Whilst performed to a scripted running order, most narrations are executed extempore and depend for their success upon a deep knowledge of the subject. The structure of public performances is deliberately arranged so as to inform whilst entertaining.
Sub-contractors
There are, of course, areas of expertise that cannot cover and we have built up a series of reliable people whose high standards of presentation fit in well with our own. These include falconry with both flying demonstrations and a mews, spit-roast catering, street performers, musicians, jesters and fire-breathers. We also have sound and developing contacts with Rare Breeds Societies.
Legal and Financial Matters
Fees and Expenses
How much we cost depends on your requirements, but we are completely prepared to cut our suit to the cloth that might be available. For your interest, we regularly manage single event budgets of between £250 and £28,000 and filming budgets of over £50,000.
Insurances
We have £5,000,000 Public Liability Insurance. We have a separate page introducing our insurance cover.
VAT
We are registered for VAT and our number is 570 091 556. Any quotation is exclusive of that tax.
Additional Charges
Some large items – such as the ship replicas and portable buildings – have their own sliding scale of charges dependent on use, location and the length of hire. Other smaller items can be dealt with from within a single items budget that will be agreed in advance of the work. This budget will then be dealt with internally to pay the various owners of the props for the use of their equipment.
All properties that are owned by the Society or its members will always be transported, erected and struck by members of Regia Anglorum acting upon the reasonable instructions of the production staff.
Our Other Assets
The Wychurst Project
During the last 24 years, the society has undertaken a new commitment. We have purchased two acres of Kentish woodland between Herne Bay and Canterbury. We have re-constructed a Manorial Burgh from the Late Anglo-Saxon period. It is a huge and ambitious project, one that will occupy the Society's members for years to come. For more on this project, access the Wychurst pages from the link in the menu bar.
Educational Links
In England and Wales, school visits and demonstrations under the National Curriculum are a very important part of the work of the Society. A typical visit would take up a full morning or afternoon session and include an in-depth talk, followed by inter-reactive demonstrations using artifacts reconstructed to museum standards.Points of contact with the national curriculum can be in Key Stage Two under Invaders & Settlers or in Key Stage Three Mediaeval Realms which opens with the Battle of Hastings.
In addition to the obvious educational advantages, we have found that this is an excellent way of raising public awareness of an impending event. Teachers will wish to attend in order to take notes and photographs and the children will carry the news of the event home to their parents.
A single mail shot is usually arranged through the County's Education Post Room, which alerts schools to the forthcoming educational possibilities. Each school then makes its own arrangements with our School Visitor Service.
All this can be arranged in-house and involves our client only in the production of leaflets with which to supply teachers and children at the end of a school visit.
Naturally, a similar service can be extended to local historical societies et al.
Previous Clients
A brief selection might be of some interest:
- The Jorvik Viking Centre, for whom we have worked annually for over twenty years.
- Many years annually at the Largs Vikingr! Centre, (whose drama documentary video almost exclusively features our members, their costume, props and equipment)
- English Heritage
- The National Trust
- The Royal Armouries
- The Museum of London
- Durham, Gloucester, Worcester, Wareham, Bristol, Stafford, Rochester and other UK City and Borough Councils.
- Ecclesiastical clients include Denny Abbey, St. Johns in Wareham, St Andrews in Chippenham, St Olav's in York, Rochester Cathedral and the Church of St Alfage in Greenwich.
We have supplied replica artefacts, personal equipment and costume for – amongst others – the Jorvik Viking Centre, Doncaster Museum Services, Liverpool Museum's seminal "Silver Saga" exhibition, The Museum of European History in Taiwan, the new National Museum of Scotland, and the Peel Viking Interpretation Centre on the Isle of Man, which involved us from the year it opened, and we were heavily involved with the making of the drama documentary that showed there. Having completed a £16,000 contract to re-equip one of Britain's largest interpretation centres, we feel quite capable of producing any equipment from a fine-toothed comb to a full sized ship replica! The National Geographic Museum in Washington DC where we supplied a wide range of replica artefacts for a six month long display in support of their award winning “Saxon Gold” exhibition. Many of the artefacts were commissioned especially for the contract on a returnable basis and are available for further hire.
The Visual Media
We have a very wide range of contacts throughout the visual media, including the BBC – we have been featured in:
- Genius of the Vikings
- Blood of the Vikings
- Time Team (many times now!)
- A History of Britain
- Casualty
- Out of This World
- Ivanhoe!
- The Matthew Project
- See You, See Me
In 1997, we supplied the great majority of Extras for BBC's £6M production of Ivanhoe!. In 1998 we completed twelve day's location work for BBC Education in Scotland and other days on location for Yorkshire TV's Secrets of the Dead. In recent years, we have worked for various independent TV companies, such as Aimimage, Ardent Productions, Flying Pictures, Halcyon Productions, Lightworks, Meridian, Principal, Screenhouse, Seventh Art, Telyasin, Thames Television, and the Los Angeles based World Wide Pictures.
You can find out more about our filmwork experience here.
In closing
I hope you have found our words and pictures interesting and evocative. None of the photos have been staged, all being taken at events or other work. I hope you have a pretty good idea now of our ability to organise, arrange and perform – from school fêtes to major national events. I am available during normal business hours and would be very interested in discussing our possible input for YOUR event.
Or select a page you want to go to:
Contact Details: