Our next event will be a fabulous plot and banquet event with lots of fighting and running around in character, held at Horley Scout Camp near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Hauk of the Oestvikingae is in charge so expect surprises and excitement!
Category Archives: News
Past news from DAS.
Earleywood event 18-20 March 2016
The first DAS event of 2016 will be at Earleywood Scout Centre, 18-20 March. This is a great location, with showers and bunk beds and everything.
You can catch up with the DAS rolling plot by reading the DAS Chronicle. It’s 875: this summer King Alfred went out to sea with an armed fleet, and fought with seven ship-rovers, one of whom he took, and dispersed the others.
Many questions remain be answered in 876. What’s your favourite cheese? Where is the shoulder bone of St Dunstan’s sheep? Is Ælf truly a turncoat? Come to Earleywood and we may find out!
Flaunden event 13-15 November
Hurrah! We have another event confirmed in the diary. This is a traditional DAS weekend of fighting and feasting, to be held in the lovely Hertfordshire village of Flaunden over the weekend of the 13th to 15th November.
See the diary for details of all DAS events this year:
South Cadbury event
We have a new event confirmed, a traditional DAS weekend of fighting and feasting at South Cadbury in Somerset. We’ll fight on the spectacular South Cadbury hillfort.
This will happen over the weekend of the 9th – 11th October.
We are also planning to attend a couple of larger events this year, see the diary for details:
*** New Event – First event of 2015 booked ***
Wups! We don’t seem to have had much news to post in the last year. However, we’ve had some excellent events in 2014 and the Dark Ages Society is in fine fighting form, as you can read in the DAS Chronicle
The first event of 2015 will be The Hunt for Ivar’s Treasure, a DAS weekend of fighting and feasting over the 27th – 29th March 2014, at Earleywood Scout Camp, near Sunningdale in Berkshire. We welcome all members old and new, who would like to fight in the woods, practice crafts, or just enjoy good fellowship, food and ale with the Dark Ages Society.
Flaunden event, 25-27 October 2013
The mighty Cilternsaete will be running an event in the village of Flaunden in Hertfordshire, over the weekend of 25th to 27th October. This will be a private society event with fighting and feasting. Any non-members who’d like to find out more and maybe give DAS a try, get in touch!
First Event of 2013 Booked!
We’ll be holding a DAS weekend of fighting and feasting over the 5th – 7th April, at Earleywood Scout Camp, near Sunningdale in Berkshire.
* Please note the change of date! *
This is a great venue as we have the run of the camp and can fight on site in the afternoon, then hang out by a roaring bonfire until it’s time for the banquet. There will also be time for crafts and sports / games – whatever people want to do, really.
We’ll fight in the morning in a local woodland. So there will be plenty of fighting for the most battle-hardened warriors. And there are showers! And a proper kitchen! And it’s heated!
Winter event confirmed 23-25 November!
Our winter event has been confirmed for the 23rd – 25th November. It will be a full-on traditional DAS event in the village hall at Flaunden in the lovely county of Hertfordshire.
A day of fighting in the woods will be followed by a sumptuous banquet. We hope to see as many members as possible there to see the year out in style!
The Spring of 2012
Hello all re-enactors, who should by now be polishing up helmets, getting the moths out of cloaks and washing the sticky residue out of horns in preparation for the coming season. 2012 looks like being a great year for DAS, with another 2 events in the calendar in addition to those booked last year.
- 27-29 July – trip to Caen in France for living history and maybe fighting.
- 21-23 September – a traditional DAS fighting weekend at South Cadbury, Somerset.
For our full events lineup so far, see the Events Diary.
Our first event in 2012 is 30 March – 1 April, at Earleywood Scout Camp in Berkshire. This is a private society event of fighting and feasting. Please contact us if you are interested in attending.
Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012
2011 closed with a small but very enjoyable winter adventure on Leith Hill. Despite the countryside being ravaged by plague (that is, everybody and his dog being ill!), we few survivors battled our way to the Tower of Plenty, where we bought orange squash and then did an impromptu display for about 20 passers-by – who seemed to enjoy the spectacle.
Later on we enjoyed a sumptuous banquet with slow-cooked mutton, fine pates and other goodies, and plenty of ale and songs. Many thanks to the Westmen.
The calendar for next year is starting to take shape, though there are still plenty of spaces for any member who would like to run an event – especially if anybody who hasn’t run an event before would like to have a go.
2012 – the Calendar So Far
30th March – 1st April: Earleywood Scout Camp, Berkshire
20th April – 22nd April: Chiltern Open Air Museum, Buckinghamshire
18th May – 20th May: Forest Green, Surrey
24th August – 27th August (Bank Holiday): Danelaw Village, York
The Final 2011 Bash Approaches
DAS’s last event for the year will be at Forest Green in Surrey. We’ll fight on historic Leith Hill – indeed on the very site of the Battle of Leith Hill, way back in the time of Alfred’s father. Wulf and the Westmen will provide us with a fine winter feast, and it’ll be our last chance to trade blows on the field of battle, and drinks in the banquet hall, before next year.
If you’d like to join us for battle and banquet, please get in touch!
Breaking News – first events for 2012 booked!
We now have 2 confirmed events for next year:
30 March – 1 April, Earleywood Scout Camp, Berkshire
24-27 August (Bank Holiday), Danelaw Village, Murton Park, York
Cadbury over, Flaunden Approaches
The event at South Cadbury was made particularly glorious by the wonderful weather. Read all about it here: Cadbury 2011. Many thanks to the organisers Hrolf and Morag for all their work, both to plan the event and to make it such a success on the day.
The next DAS event is fast approaching, over the weekend of the 4th-6th November. This will be another traditional DAS fighting weekend at Flaunden in Hertfordshire, hosted by those mighty Saxons, the Cilternsaete.
At this event there will be a mini-officers meeting, so please get in touch with your unit officer or the Chair, Guthwald, if you want to raise any items. Note that anything requiring extensive discussion will have to be put off until the full meeting in February.
Officers’ Meeting Date
The autumn 2011 Officers’ Meeting will be held at the Flaunden event, on Saturday 5th November 2011.
This will be a short meeting slotted in between the fighting and the banquet. The agenda will be fixed and there will be no “any other business”. Matters requiring extensive discussion will have to wait until the full meeting in February.
Please make sure to get your agenda items to your unit officer or the Chair, Guthwald, well before the meeting, so that the officers can cover as much as possible in the time available.
New Dates for Flaunden and Forest Green
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the last two DAS events of the year have changed date.
Herewulf’s event at Flaunden, Hertfordshire has moved to the 4th-6th November 2011.
Wulf’s event at Forest Green, Surrey has moved to the 25th-27th November 2011.
DASmag Archive Online
Alf the Archivist has been busy scanning all the old DASmags he’s been able to find – starting with #1 from 1975. And these are now available for you to read as pdf files.
Visit the DASmag Archive to read the mags. The Archive is only available to members of DAS, so you will have to log in to the website to visit the archive. If you are a member of DAS, then you can register for the website using the “Register” feature at the bottom of the menu to the left of the screen.