The Weekly Sitrep....Numbers 44 and 45

The bridge at Clyst St Mary - scene of a battle and the subsequent slaughter of some 900 Devon and Cornwall rebel prisoners

An oversight on my part for sure - I managed to forget to write this last week following on from my ACW collection post so apologies for the delay!

From Wednesday of last week SWMBO and I headed west to stay near our friends place just outside of Exeter. For a variety of reasons we did not get out and about very much other than the daily six minute drive from the b and b we were staying at to their house although a couple of walks with the family dog did take place. We stayed at small Devon village called Clyst St Mary and the significance of this is that there was not only a battle fought there but also a subsequent massacre in 1549 during the Prayer Book Rebellion. The whole area of the rebellion is within that locale and being Devon is still relatively untouched or developed although Exeter itself seems to be getting bigger.

Whilst I have not explored the area of the campaign, nor indeed the campaign itself, in any great detail (I have driven though or arond the area many times) it is something I would like to do in due course as it took place over a fairly compact area amongst some wonderful Devon countryside. Even the place names that featured in the Rebellion sound evocative and, well, country like: Fenny Bridges, Ottery St Mary, Clyst St Mary, Sampford Courtenay, Crediton and Woodbury Common - all solid rural sounding place names.

From a gaming perspective I recall a number of years ago my old friend Chris Hardman et al were involved in running a game based on the rebellion with the royal army consisting of Italian Arquebusiers, Landschneckts and German troops against bluff and hearty Cornish and Devon yeoman featuring longbows and bills etc. I will have to ask Chris about the game as it was a while ago.

I discovered, after some trawling of the net, that an article by Andy Callan appeared in Miniature Wargames Number 13 and featured a solo campaign game for the rebellion and this was used to very good effect on the following blog: Heretical Gaming written by JWH.

As an aside the other rebellion from the same year - that of Robert Kett in Norfolk - also has a personal connection in hat my sister in law and her family live walking distance from the rebel camp at Mousehold Heath near Norwich. 1549 was a busy year on the rebellion front!

Work will resume on the 30mm ACW collection this evening and I am aiming to have the whole lot finished, photographed and blogged over the course of next weekend. When this is done I will need to think about the accompanying naval elements but I have a couple of plans in mind for this - more of which later.