Authenticity Officer’s Photo Guide – Examples of Authentic Kit

The primary garment is the tunic. Its skirt comes to the knee cap or just above and it’s always worn tight to the forearm and wrist. Neck-holes are either round, oval or square, and can have a keyhole opening. The square keyhole neck-hole is very fashionable. Decoration, in the form of facings, embroidery, silk strips or tablet weave, can be applied to the cuffs and neck-hole. Embroidery is sometimes applied to the tunic’s skirt but never around its hem. Tunics are usually made from wool but can also be from linen.

Belts can be made from either braided wool or from a leather strap. They can be simply tied or else closed by a buckle of bone, iron or copper-alloy. Belts sometimes have strap-ends attached.

For warmth a cloak can be worn, clasped on the right-hand shoulder by ties or a large disc brooch or pin.

Leg coverings, if worn at all, should be tight to the leg and are usually hose and braies or more rarely trousers. Leg wraps can also be worn. These are long strips of 10cm wide woollen cloth worn wound about the lower leg from the ankle to the knee.

Shoes are of the simple, two-part turn shoe construction and are usually low, coming to below the ankle.

Jewellery is usually of copper-alloy or pewter although some silver is still used. Winchester and Ringerike styles are common.

This is a period of rapid military advancement driven by frequent Scandinavian raids. Weapons and armour are markedly more plain and utilitarian than in previous centuries and the new industrialised towns churn out evermore weapons, helmets and mail shirts.

The conical iron helmet is worn by all but the poorest of warriors. The large round wooden shield is the primary form of defence. During this 60 year period, mail shirts slowly become more numerous, going from being restricted to the wealthy in the 970s to being worn by most professional warriors by the 1040s.

Warriors carry into battle 1 or 2 javelins to throw and a spear to use one-handed and overarm in combat. Additional weapons could include a seax, a large single edged knife; a simple hand axe; or a sword. Swords are both plainer and more plentiful than before and many warriors now carry them. The seax was carried by the English, both as a status symbol and as a weapon of last resort.

Sometime around AD1016 the new terror weapon, the Dane Axe arrives in Britain. A large axe wielded in both hands and deployed to stop mounted warriors. The English are experimenting with fighting from horseback, as is the norm in mainland Europe, but with limited success.

Most arrows are now bodkins, designed to pierce the ever increasing number of mail-shirts. Although bows do not constitute a major part of the battle they are used both in the starting clashes and also in seiges by both attackers and defenders alike.