Milestone Magazine Launch Edition - Draft 1[626]

ISSUE #1
A Year In Review
Editors’ Introduction
Meet the Team
Trader Newsletter
Dates for 2018
A Year in Review & Gallery
The Sheriff Writes
The Executioner Writes
Richard III

Editor’s Introduction
It brings me great joy to kick off the new year and reveal the new face of the Viking Medieval Markets
with a bang—and a newsletter!
This is the very special launch edition of the new Milestone Magazine, which will still bring you all the
same information, but in a very different format. In these new editions, we will have the same features
you know and love—the trader updates, event dates and details and event reviews. There are also plenty
of new additions which I hope you will grow to love.
This magazine is part of the bigger rebranding that I hope you’ll all notice over the next year or so. We’ll
have new logos, a bigger online presence with our new website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
accounts and more points of contact than ever. Click on any of the images below to be directed to either
the website, our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
I hope you like the new format! If you’d like to give us any feedback or any submissions for the
Milestone Magazine, you can email me on milestonemagazine@vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk.
Please note that details contained in Milestone Magazine are correct at the time it is sent out, however
circumstances may change over time and alterations made without prior consultation. In such cases all
participants will be notified under separate cover. This newsletter is designed as a provisional guide only.
Should arrangements alter your understanding and cooperation is appreciated.
Elizabeth Kellett
Editor In Chief
Meet the Team
The administration team are currently made up of five members who attend each and every event we do—
from left to right, Drew Barnes (Production Assistant), Mark Olly (Event Co-ordinator), Elizabeth Kellett
(Marketing & Media), Andrea Olly (Production Assistant—MythCo), James Jackson (Contributor
Liaison).
There are many, many other people who contribute to make the VMM events what they are and without
whom we could not pull off what we do.

There’s still a lot going on.
Trader Newsletter
Unfortunately, despite extensive attempts at negotiations regarding the dates for the three Warrington
events this coming year — ’Trade of Thrones’ Fantasy Market in spring and ‘A Knight to Remember’ in
midsummer, as well as the usual Warrington VMM on the first weekend of September — we have only
been able to confirm one of those dates with Warrington Retail Market—Trade of Thrones Therefore, in
this issue, the dates are still included as provisional.
If you would like to provisionally book, please email Mark on his usual email address (markolly@hotmail.co.uk).
We are not in a position to confirm any bookings until the dates are confirmed,
however confirmations will be sent as soon as dates are confirmed.
As in the last newsletter, we have a second year’s spring Mini-Vikings publicity event for any available
costumed volunteers at Formby, this time in the grounds and building of the Town Pool complex. The
date for the next annual Formby VMM is also firmly booked in for September. Further details can be
found on the Facebook event under our new page.
Don’t forget, although everyone who would like to attend our Meal Out in January should have confirmed
by the new year, it is still possible to confirm your attendance if you want to come.
Dates for 2018
Confirmed Dates for 2018
The Meal Out
Meal & Social at 7:00pm on Friday 26th January
2018 at the Rams’ Head Inn, Church Lane,
Grappenhall, WA4 3EP
Mini Vikings
Formby Viking Gathering on Sunday 20th May
2018 in the grounds of the Pool Complex in
Formby Village Centre
Vikings
Formby Viking Medieval Market on Saturday 22nd
September 2018 at the rear of the Gild Hall on
Church Road, Formby.
Trade of Thrones
Warrington Fantasy Market on Saturday 7th April
2018 outside the Market Hall & in Warrington
Town Centre.
Provisional Dates for 2018
A Knight to Remember
Warrington VMM & Evening Concert on Saturday
23rd June 2018 outside the Market Hall & in
Warrington Town Centre.
Legends
Warrington Viking Medieval Market on Saturday
1st September 2018 outside the Market Hall & in
Warrington Town Centre.

The Sheriff Writes
Welcome one and all to a new era for the Viking Medieval Markets (VMM) starting right now in 2018.
As you can see, we have the new quarterly MILESTONE MAGAZINE replacing our occasional
newsletters (milestonemagazine@vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk) compiled under the watchful eye of
‘Editor In Chief’ Lizzie ‘The Executioner’ – so watch what you submit! We have launched a new overall
‘brand’ with all our event logos turning black to match the organization logo, and locations taking
precedent over individual event titles.
We have the all new web site www.mythco.uk serving the needs of anyone creative (especially bands and
authors) who are often not as involved in our events due to budget and space. Finally, we have the VMM’s
own dedicated web site www.vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk which will ultimately cater for all your social
media needs and hopefully draw the large and growing VMM ‘family’ even closer together.
Obviously, I expect best behavior from everyone on our social media and please try not to
post the usual barrage of pointless internet nonsense, stickers, fake news, chain posts, etc.
Keep it real and keep it relevant.
For my part I will still be issuing all confirmations from mark-olly@hotmail.co.uk but general posts,
comments, articles, and enquiries can now be directed through all the Viking Medieval Market sites
making my job a lot less cluttered. Frankly, the continued success of the VMM has taken us all quite by
surprise and it’s only fair to make the whole thing run as efficiently as we possibly can for the benefit of
the over a hundred and twenty traders, demonstrators, performers, organisations, musicians, artists and reenactors
who are now connected with us.
Last year was exceptionally busy with six Viking Medieval events, including the largest ever staged on
Welsh soil, and this year is shaping up to be somewhat similar. However, we are already looking at a huge
national event in 2019, and another in 2020, so watch this space.
It only remains for me to wish everyone a great New Year from myself and the much-valued team of
enthusiastic volunteers here at the VMM and I promise to get round and see you all at various events
through this next year.
Just keep an eye on your inboxes for confirmation – and here we go again!
Mark Olly
Event Coordinator

The Executioner Writes
QUESTION:
Dear Executioner, do you think we should always be completely authentic?
ANSWER:
Wearing machine woven sack cloth and camping in a field with your mates doesn’t make you authentic.
The way I see it, there are two groups of reenactors. Group A is filled with people that are history
enthusiasts, who enjoy communicating knowledge to the general uneducated public. Group B is full of
snooty idiots that laugh if they think your underwear isn’t authentic.
Believe it or not, we do not live in the times we recreate (thank god), so everything we do is in some way
influenced by modern times—most obviously modern laws. For example, laws were only passed in the
early 1300s that men had to wear a covering of some kind from the waist down—I’d like to see authentic
reenactors try that one.
QUESTION:
Dear Executioner, what king of medieval bum bags are we allowed—did they
ever actually exist?
ANSWER:
This has been a long running argument amongst reenactors, as no actual
archaeological remains of bags on belts have been found which are dated before
the 15th century (1400AD). That rules out the whole of the Viking/Saxon period
and most of the crusades.
However, contemporary images from the 13th
century (1200AD) survive of stone masons in France
wearing belt mounted, square, leather bags, which
also held a ballock dagger through the centre.
(pictured left) Images and carvings of pilgrims also
survive, where they are carrying large and small
purse-like square shoulder bags closed with a
triangular flap (pictured right). These go as far back
as the 12th century (1100AD) and leather money
bags as far back as the 11th century (1000AD).
As prehistoric cultures buried cremated remains in
leather draw-string bags, it’s not unreasonable to
assume such items were in use in other, day to day ways. They don’t survive as
they simply wore out, rotted away, or were burnt with the rubbish.
QUESTION:
Dear Executioner, can I wear socks inside my leather boots?
ANSWER:
Only if they’re authentic.
If you have a question for the executioner, send a smoke signal, perform a ritual with a
human sacrifice, or just send an email to milestonemagazine@vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk

Yearly Round-Up
BAWMING THE THORN
Appleton Thorn Crusader Gathering - Saturday 17 th June 2017
We had a great turnout of folks for this event in posh kit and enjoyed the
hospitality of the whole village on the second hottest day of they year in
Appleton Thorn, Cheshire—seriously, how did they cope during the
crusades?!
It was a celebration of the 830 year anniversary, since Adam De Dutton
brought a branch of Joseph of Arimathea’s Holy Thorn tree back to his home
village of Appleton Thorn when the third crusade ended in 1187. We were
personally requested to parade and guard the current Holy Thorn Tree for this extremely important
folklore event.
Most of the local and regional press covered the event and there are lots of photographs from the day up
on the VMM website and also on Facebook.
TOURNAMENT
Conwy Viking Medieval Market - Friday 23 rd , Saturday 24 th ,
Sunday 25 th June 2017
This was the biggest medieval event ever held on Welsh soil. In total, 30—
40,000 members of the public attended in and around the entire city of
Conwy.
Contributors included, but were not limited to: seven morris dancing groups,
four dance troupes, three jousting teams, a full sized jousting and combat
arena, six large authentic tented camps, over 700 reenactors and costumed characters, 70 trader in three
markets (the Wool Market in the square, the Viking Medieval Market on the High Street and Trade of
Thrones on the Quayside. There was also a Viking camp and Viking ships sailing in the harbor,
Shakespeare in the castle (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), a banquet for 240 visited by the current Lord of
Conwy for the first time in 56, three teams of fighting knights, circus skills and street performers, at least
30 dragons of various sizes, a dancing bear with a handler and two executioners.
Throughout the weekend there were also full live music programs on Stage One on the Quayside and
Stage Two in the Blue Bell pub.
The event covered the entire medieval city of about 2.5 square miles and took hours to walk around. Many
of our own team members only saw even half of the event themselves!
Four stalls completely sold out and three had the best takings they have ever had. So are we going to do it
again? The current view is not as big as the first year, but probably in the future at some point. Any news
will be announced, so watch this space.
MEDIEVAL
Gwrych Castle Viking Medieval Market - Saturday 19 th & Sunday
20 th August 2017
This was a new Viking Medieval Market event inside the grounds of the
ruined Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales. What a fantastic venue and
large event to rival our urban venues it turned out to be!
Sadly the North Wales coastal weather plagued Saturday with alternate wind
and rain, but the Sunday was consistently better until 4pm ,when the rain set
in again as the event stripped down.

We had three medieval knight’s camps, a full separate arena field with the addition of heavy horses and
birds of prey, loads of kids activities, many ‘guests’ from the Conwy event including morris, street
entertainers, dragons, the Whipperginnies and many loyal supporters of the Gwrych Castle Trust.
Our Market was well attended and contained many new traders and mead sellers, spinners and weavers,
children’s crafts and attractions, a ‘fire pit’ for story-tellers, as well as the usual wide spread of other
crafts, up-cycled goods and food providers.
Local press finally reported 4,000 attending over the weekend and, we were on two lists of must see
attractions in North Wales.
MASONS
Westhoughton Crusader Gathering - Sunday 10 th September 2017
Rescheduled from last year, this event was a none-trading, crusader costumed
re-enactment in support of the Freemasons Of West Lancashire (Chorley &
District Group) who were celebrating 300 years of Freemasonry by throwing
the doors of Westhoughton Masonic Hall open to visitors. We were given
privileged access into the inner workings of the Freemasons.
It provided a great opportunity for us all to parade in our best kit without
having to set up any stalls or equipment & without the need to trade. 15 of the
VMM team turned out including The Lord Of Macclesfield’s Retinue, The
Knights Of Failsworth, The Knights Of St Claire and family visitors from as far afield as Southern France
and Corsica.
VIKINGS
Formby Viking Medieval Market - Saturday 23 rd September 2017
This was the 5 th and most successful year for what is undoubtedly our most
popular trading event. Around six traders camped on site overnight on the
Friday and were woken by sounds of other traders arriving on the Saturday.
Everyone knew what they were doing and where they should be, creating a
smooth set up with around 650 visitors through the day.
The Formby Scout group provided three tents and ‘Viking Burgers’ (buns with
gherkin horns!) throughout the day, there was a strong performance in the
arena by the fighting Knights Of Failsworth with their guest fighter ‘The Mighty Oak’ (James), and Freyja
Faery who did some fire dancing. The usual Viking Ships and authentic re-enactors gave displays
throughout the day and Rob introduced the full range of his newly improved Birds Of Prey display.
The mini indoor ‘Fairy Festival’ produced a wide range of legendary products including ‘Dragons
Eggs’ (chocolate eggs in chocolate brownie covered in chocolate) and enough fairy dust to sink a ship!
LEGENDS
Warrington Viking Medieval Market - Saturday 7 th October 2017
It rained – but that put no one off!
Around 1600 Warrington folk joined with fairies, lots of dragons, mythical
characters, knights, Vikings, and a huge range of traders, to celebrate the 7 th
annual Warrington Viking Medieval Market 2017. Of special note were the
three mead and alcohol sellers, a huge wooden dragon which could actually be
ridden, glitter beards, a strong show of arms in the knights headquarters tent
and a positive array of sunny smiles all round.
Live music was provided by The Whipperginnies singers, Kevin the Hurdy-Gurdy player, Vales Elia,
Leafblade, Livia, and Serpentyne, and dancing by Livia’s Elemental Dancers, Freyja Faery and Ya Raqs
crusader period dancers. Once again the magnificent Viking ship appeared on-street and shared space with
two hobbit characters ‘Sally’ and ‘Forth’, two mobile life-size dragons, street tafl (Viking chess), Wall-Of-
Asgard Jenga, and knights fighting in the small arena.

Gallery

We are the Dreamers of Dreams
A Loose Confederation of Mythologists & Imagineers
Some of you might have noticed over this last year that MythCo banners have been introduced to the live
stages at VMM events, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce ourselves properly as we
make the move into the public eye.
MythCo’s first commissioned project was in 2003 to help Samuel Olly with two student video projects.
This was followed by Mark Olly’s ITV Granada / Sky History Channel series Lost Treasures (Season One)
in 2005 and since then MythCo has continued getting involved with differing production projects, some
you won’t be familiar with – and some you will. Mark Olly’s ITV Granada / Sky History Channel series
Lost Treasures (Season Two) followed in 2007 and Season Three in 2008.
MythCo was given a wonderful opportunity to help film and prop the music video Alien Abduction Probe
for the band Hayseed Dixie in 2009 to feature on their album ‘Killer Grass’, some of you joined us in the
madness of filming the video for the single Windy Christmas by Sacred Wind, a charity single to raise
money for MIND in 2012 supported by Stephen Fry. MythCo also helped in 2012 with props and actors in
the award winning movie Molly Crows by Ray Wilkes / Flashgun Films. The props, actors, filming and
production of The Life and Times of the Real Robyn Hoode took place in 2014 which once again featured a
big contribution from MythCo and the VMM. We are now in the development stages of our latest
documentary production The Disappearing Ninth Legion which is about the lost Roman Legion which
appeared to vanish from York.
We are currently working with authors Mark Olly, John Aspin, Andy Coffey and Sean Jude, and the artists
Anthony Potts and Rebecca Turner, along with the next album release for the band Leafblade. MythCo
has supported the live stages at the VMM since 2013 but only taking over the actual stage management in
2016.
If you are a creative person and feel you need any information or that we can be of help to you please
contact us on our FaceBook, via the MythCo Website or email mythco@outlook.com.
Andrea Olly
Production Director

Richard III & the Broken Royal
Bloodline
More than 500 years after his death on the battlefield in 1485, the bones
of Richard III are delivering further surprises. DNA testing has shown
that the present Queen may not be descended from John of Gaunt and
Edward III, the lineage on which the Tudor claim to the throne originated.
Extensive DNA testing was carried out on the remains to confirm the
identity of the suspected king, including five anonymous donors who
claim decent from both the Plantagenets and Tudors (through the children
of John the Gaunt). All five samples should have matched the Y
chromosomes extracted from Richard’s bones, however none did. Since
Richard’s identity was proved via mitochondrial DNA, through the
female line, the conclusion is stark—there is a break in the claimed line of
decent.
The analysis of Richard’s DNA gives a 96% probability of blue eyes and 77% that he was blonde, refuting
all contemporary evidence that Richard had dark eyes and shoulder length dark hair.
However, the Tudors took the crown because they killed
Richard at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 as opposed to
having royal blood through their veins. They can also back
up their claim to the throne through the decent of John of
Gaunt, son of Edward III and father of Henry IV, and the
ancestor of the Tudor family though the legitimised
Beaufort children after marrying his mistress, Katherine
Swynford.
Although the Queen is descended from the Hanoverian
kings, imported 300 years ago when the Stuart line failed with the death of the childless Queen Anne in
1714 and the Act of Settlement ensured that only Protestants could take the throne, the blood lines are
entangled. Working out where the line from Edward
III to the present Beaufort family was broken could
only be done by exhuming a lot of bodies, which just
isn’t going to happen—nor will the royal family be
offering DNA swabs on a silver platter.
The skeleton found underneath a car par in Leicester in
September 2012 has been declared ‘beyond reasonable
doubt’ to be that of King Richard III, whose remains
had been missing for 500 years.

Interesting Images
Blurb text

Contact Us
You can contact the VMM team in many different ways.
As always, you can contact Mark on mark-olly@hotmail.co.uk.
You can also contact the magazine on
milestonemagazine@vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk
If you have any general enquiries, they can be directed towards
hello@vikingmedievalmarkets.co.uk
Click the images below to be directed to the VMM’s website,
Facebook page, Twitter page or Instagram page.
Please note that details contained in Milestone Magazine are correct at the time it is sent
out, however circumstances may change over time and alterations made without prior
consultation. In such cases all participants will be notified under separate cover. This
newsletter is designed as a provisional guide only. Should arrangements alter your
understanding and cooperation is appreciated.