The Monmouth Rebellion was the last popular uprising on English soil. It took place in Somerset with the Rebels coming from places like Taunton, Bridgwater and Frome. Although the Rebels fought the redcoats to a draw at Norton St Philip they were routed at a night battle at Sedgemoor in 1685.
It's a full ten years since I started the 1685 society - aimed at bringing the Monmouth Rebellion back to life, so I thought I'd commemorate it by posting a few pics. It was pretty successful - perhaps too successful as most of the members went off to create their own copycat organisations... we did quite a bit of tv work - educational programmes and the like - the photos here show us at the cob at Lyme Regis filming - I'm second from the right playing Nathaniel Wade and at Glastonbury Rural Life Museum I am teaching pike drill. I used to fancy myself as a bit of an illustrator then and did a lot of drawings (see pic) - noone had the nerve to tell me I was crap but they served their purpose which was to try and make reenactors realise that the Monmouth Rebels weren't farmers and rustics but urban clothworkers from places like Frome. Somerset at the time was an industrial centre although it didn't serve the tourist industry to say that but instead they played up the peasant angle calling it a Pitchfork Rebellion. Ugh!
Nowadays there are quite a few groups doing the period which I view as a positive outcome - I got pretty disillusioned with running reenactment societies anyway - one of my friends described it as 'cat herding' which is pretty true - everyone wants to be in charge and noone wants to do any actual work. I don't miss the hassle one bit.
