Here’s a video of the Procession through the town centre and the ceremony at the King Harold Memorial Stone in the Abbey Churchyard on King Harold Day at Waltham Abbey, Saturday 11 October 2014. We were lucky with the weather, and it was a very successful day.
The day commemorates Harold Godwinsson, the last Anglo Saxon King of England, who was killed on 14 October 1066 at the Battle of Senlac Hill.
coming Saturday 11 October. The Feudals were our first re-enactment group when King Harold Day started, and we thought it was time we invited them again. Members of the group will be travelling from across the country for what will be the last event of their 2014 season. They’ll set up their Village with medieval tents, where they’ll demonstrate medieval crafts, cook their food in the medieval way, and show visitors their arms and armour. Twice during the day, at 11am and 3.15pm, they will perform in the Arena. Engaging in archery, they will shoot for a prize and for the approval of the Queen and her Ladies in Waiting.
The medieval musicians, Squeake’s Noyse, will be playing at their tent and showing visitors their medieval musical instruments.Coda Falconry will be with us. The birds will be on show all day so visitors can get close to them, and at 11.30am and 2.45pm they will be flown from the Arena, no doubt soaring up into the trees and then returning to the falconer’s hand.
Chingford Morris will be performing their Mummers’ Play and dancing.
And there will be Have-a-Go Archery with Epping Archers.
There will be Craft Stalls around the gardens and in the Abbey Church Centre.
Five of Waltham Abbey’s primary schools will be taking part in an Art Exhibition which will be on display in the Abbey Church so do go and see the children’s work. Hillhouse Primary, Leverton Infant & Nursery, Upshire Primary, Waltham Holy Cross Infant, and Waltham Holy Cross Juniors will be taking part. Their work this year is part of the important new project for a Waltham Abbey Tapestry. Bayeux has one, so why not Waltham Abbey. The tapestry will portray the history of the town and its former and present
industries and attractions. The primary schools were asked to design their ideas for subjects to be included in the tapestry’s panels.
In the Abbey Church, there will be a special concert recital at 12.30pm, part of the 
Music for Lunch series of professional concerts. Ian McDonough, violin, and David Boarder, piano will play Sonata in G major, Brahms, and Scherzo-Tarantelle, Wieniawski. The concert is free with a retiring collection, and refreshments available from 12 noon.
There will be guided tours of the Abbey, (small charge for church funds), and a demonstration of traditional bread-making.
Procession and Ceremony – At noon, the costumed performers and traders will gather outside Epping Forest District Museum at the end of Sun Street, and will walk in procession, led by the musicians and the Anglo Saxon flag, along Sun 
Street, through the Market Square, Church Street, and into the Abbey Churchyard, where a ceremony will take place at the King Harold Memorial Stone. Flowers will be placed on the memorial stone by our principal guests, the Chairman of Epping Forest District Council, Cllr Tony Boyce, and the Mayor of Waltham Abbey, Cllr Ann Mitchell. Waltham Abbey’s Town Crier, Peter Frost, will also be with us.
King Harold Day will be held in the Abbey Church, the Abbey Churchyard and Abbey Gardens, (by kind permission of the Church authorities and Lee Valley Regional Park), from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Admission is £5 for adults, £3 for senior citizens; with children who are accompanied by an adult free of charge.
A true film star is coming to King Harold Day on Saturday 11 October. (Abbey Gardens, Waltham Abbey)
Yes, Beau is back. He couldn’t be with us last year as he was filming then, and his
busy film star schedule has continued for most of the year. But he has kept his diary free for King Harold Day, and has told The Black Raven Knight to get busy preparing his accoutrements and his own armour.
And because Beau knows he has so many fans, he has promised to bring a list of all his film credits so we can see which films he has been in.
Come and see Beau on 11 October.
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