SWORD FESTIVAL
September 5th- 9th 2008
Now extended to a four day event celebrating bronze swords and mastery of bronze age smiths, with a series of casting experiments and hands on practical work, which allows you to explore sword making in the bronze while working on your own sword (Ewart Park). The stunning setting of the round houses of Tre-wortha farm, in a bronze age landscape of Bodmin moor, makes this a unique experience: bronze swords in a bronze age landscape and not a car in sight.
Up On The Tor
Sword Festival enters its 4th year in 2008. Every year since 2005 Sword Festival has been a roaring successes, with people coming from all around the world to share a common interest in bronze swords. The combination of the right sized group and the stunning landscape at Tre-wortha farm makes it a memorable experience. When sword festival was announced for September 2006 most of the places were taken in a few days, by people who attended 2005.
Pouring The Bronze
Details of 2008 Sword Festival
Friday 5th Arrive after 2.00 and set up tent and site, there will be an evening meal and a chance for the group to get to know one another and talk about bronze swords.
Edge Hardening
Saturday 6th Throughout the day there will be a series of casting experiments using charcoal furnace and clay moulds, this will be a group participation, while the time in between you will be cleaning your own blade, a sandwich lunch will be provided. In the evening, feasting and fireside entertainment, brought to you by the Guild of Fabulists performing stories from ancient times.
Sunday 7th This years talk is by Ben Roberts, curator of the bronze age collection at the British Museum . Apart from finishing the blade, and hardening the edges, we will finish the day looking at riveting handles, this is quite involved and it will only be possible to demonstrate it, so you can fit the handle in your own time. An evening meal, which you will cover, will be at the The Manor House Country Inn and Restaurant, good food and beer, then back to the round house for the evenings entertainment, with the welcome return of Dragonflymoon, creative blend of earth inspired music around the open fire in the round house.
Scott Jasper and Susan Garlick of Dragonflymoon perform their original music which is largely inspired by the beautiful native British landscape, its ancient myths & traditions and its natural cycles of energy.
Monday 8th First thing will be to catch up on anything we have missed. In 2005/6 the group decided they wanted to see some of the sites of Bodmin moor, stone circles and the like and if the weather is agreeable we will take the opportunity to do the same. Lunch will be sandwiches and evening meal will be a return to The Manor House. Entertainment this evening will be provided by Keith Hills.
ABOUT Keith Hills
It was back in '93 that "Making A Million" was released by the Ragtime Millionaires of Fellside, and it was a CD that benefited from the acoustic guitar and songwriting skills of Keith Hills. On their second recording Keith took on the additional roles of recording engineer and co-producer, plus additional guitar and backing vocals! Here we have his debut album as a soloist, with all compositions, save one, being his own work.Hills is an outstandingly skilled musician, with an enviable depth and spread of understanding of the acoustic guitar, and this is demonstrated throughout the album.
He's been around the folk scene since the early seventies, based in Cornwall but travelling extensively in both the UK and Europe. His style and technique has been cultivated and refined and this is allied with a very personal and focused lyrical content based around his family and friends, giving an end result which is essentially introspective, but which I found to be immediately familiar and comfortable.
The guitar technique is clear, bright, ringing and very tasty - somehow very much of an era, and I suppose that's part of the attraction of the album for me. His voice and singing style, redolent of Dylan, are also relaxed and comfortable, with the overall effect engendering a fondness for a period I knew well and which Keith Hills successfully encapsulates with this distinctive music and style. Realistically it is most likely to be appreciated by people of, how can I say, a certain age, but I don't have a problem with that! It isn't new, it isn't innovative, more gently nostalgic - it is reassuringly very familiar, very relaxing, and something of an indulgence.
Mel Howley
Tuesday 9th Clear the site by mid day and take down the tents and roundhouse closing ceremony.
The site is situated on high moorland and the weather can be difficult, warm and waterproof clothing is advisable but thankfully it has so far not been necessary. It is camping with access to showers and toilets. If this is not your your cup of tea, then B+B is recommended. The cost of meals except The Manor House Inn are included, ie cereals breakfast, sandwich lunch and two evening meals on site.Nearest railway station is Liskeard, collection from the station can be arranged.
Booking
Bookings and deposits will be taken from April the 8th 2008
The cost of the workshop is £200 and you can reserve your place with a non-returnable £40 deposit with the balance being paid by August 1st 2008.
There are only ten places available, this event is strictly bookings only.
Feedback from previous Sword Festivals.
Dear Neil,
I am writing this letter to thank you so very much for the wonderful experience I had at the Bronze Age Sword Festival 2006 you hosted, I enjoyed every moment of the weekend from the time I turned off the A30 on Friday to when I left site on Monday.
The Festival is a great event! Everything from the venue, the work on our swords, the food, the entertainment, the company and not least, your never ending enthusiasm for Bronze (especially in the shape of a sword) makes it all very special and for such a price!
I look forward to next year's event. I don't intend to miss it.
Thanks yet again,
John Parker
We arrived at Trewortha late in the afternoon on the Friday. The site is fantastic, two miles from the nearest road or the neighbours. It consists of three recreated Bronze Age round houses set in an enclosure on the side of a hill. Stunning views greet you on all sides and peace and tranquillity are the order of the day.
Neil was his usual joyous self, with a constant stream of entertainments and distractions on tap all day. The first evening consisted of a very welcome hot meal and beers round the fire, a chance to get to know the other members of the group.
Saturday is the first planned day of the weekend. After an easy breakfast we walked across Kilmar Tor, all the time being given a running commentary on the history of the surrounding countryside by our host, who obviously loves what he does. Then back to the round house for sword related shenanigans. Due to the constraints of time we only did one casting on Saturday, but it was an absolute thrill to be involved in such experimental archaeology, up to this point no one had come so close to the genuine article as far as bronze sword casting is concerned; charcoal fired furnace, mud and cow-poo moulds excellent!
That evening ‘The Guild of Fabulists' provided the entertainment (after another terrific meal) telling tales from across the land and across time, spellbinding and entertaining. With a full belly and a warm fire it was the perfect way to end a wonderful day.
We were blessed on Sunday with more fine weather, allowing us to sit in the sun and work on our swords, which by now had started to look quite splendid, after lunch we had a talk and slide show presentation from a local historian about Bronze Age Bodmin, man! this place was crowded! More sword work turned afternoon into evening and then to the pub! Huzzar! After eating far too much we wended our way back to the round house to be enchanted by ‘Dragonfly Moon', more flutes drums and didgeridoos than you can shake a dirty stick at. They were a really friendly couple who created truly beautiful and spiritual music that changed the whole atmosphere of the round house. We will not forget that night.
Leaving the following morning was tinged with sadness as we dreaded leaving such a relaxing haven, to return to the hustle and bustle of our lives. Roll on next year!
Rob and Lorli.
This was an absolutely amazing workshop and experience. It is hard to express adequetly in words the first impressions one has as one approaches Trewortha farm. Its isolation high in Bodmin Moor makes it seem a place removed from time as we were greeted by the round houses on the approach up the hill. It certainly took us a few moments of silent reflection to get our heads around the setting before we started to set up our camping sites. And these, of course, were right on site as we searched for a level place where once a Bronze Age home stood to place our tent...Magic!
That evening, being the Friday, was relaxed and all about getting to know the people with whom we were about to spend the next four days. The real magic about this event is in the people who attend and of course Neil, our all too gracious host, all of whom made the event so special. Each person attending already has something in common, a love of History and of the Bronze Age, so conversations and new freindships were easily forged.
The Saturday was the first really day of the festival, with a very impassioned explanation of the Bronze sword through time by Neil to start the day we were then handed our partners for the next few days, our swords. We were then shown how to clean and prepare the blades, which we were all to happy to begin. Inside the round house the kiln was perpared and the mould fired to prepare for the days casting. And when that time came all rushed into the round house and a strange silence fell over the group as Neil tolds us what to expect and how to prepare and pour the bronze. we watched in amazment as the crucible glowed in the darkness of the round house and all eyes were fixed upon it. Well, the rest needs to be experieced to really appreciate the festival. After the casting, and the sound of bronze blades being prepared all day it was off to the Inn and a good feeding of excellent food. We returned to the amazing tale-telling abilities of the Guild of Fabulists, which for us was the finest night of entertainment we have ever had. To see the Bardic tradition so fully brought to life and how spellbound we all were at the tales told over the fire. A true Bronze Age entertainment experience.
Sunday we returned to the buisness of blade preperation and also edge-hardening, the air was alive with the sounds of filing and hammering. Another casting experiment kept us all busy throught the day and held us until the evening came and Dragonfly Moon arrived. This musyt be experienced to be truely appreciated. The music moved us to dance and we all fell under a mood of celebration and merriment the likes of which we have not really had anywhere else.
Well, in short, Neil Burridge has created an event unlike anything else one can experience. He has brought history and culture together into a wonderful weekend with the focus around the magic and power of the sword in the Bronze Age, and then provides a unique and very different experience each evening that when it was over we were left wondering about the reality of the previous four days, so dream like it semed.
We truly hope to attend this event as much as we can, although we live a world away in Canada. thank you so much Neil for this event!
Ryan and Aryn
Links
A review of 2005 Sword Fest
Further information
0781 344 1767 (UK mobile)
