Home Guard Mounted Parade Reconstruction

On the first June weekend I went to the weald and Downland Heavy Horse show. This is a pasttime I take part in a lot and it is also very good to see historical reconstructions of victorian or wartime land workers and in this case the Home Guard Mounted demonstration. All the members wore authentic or very well replicated costume of Army/home guard uniforms, Gentry and land army girl costume. On horseback they were demonstrating the weapon techniques used during the 1940's. Again some of these weapons were authentic and others were replicated. But in taking these photos it adds to my bank of reference material. The uniforms were very well put together with various belts, rifles and gas mask bags. It is also very important to remember that horses through history and the early part of the 20th century were vital to the running of everyday life, vital in military, farming, sport, and general transport, their tack and dress appearance changes as well as the humans upon them. In films a knowledge of leather work and tack is always useful to consider.

Another historical demonstration was of the 1908 St Giles Horse drawn fire engine. This piece of equipment and the uniforms worn by the firemen were completely authentic (apart from some hose repears) In filming if something like this was needed the authentic one can possibly be hired out but again it is always useful to log these photos to show me what the equipment and uniforms of the time were like.