Ryedale Folk Museum

Another bank holiday gone by and we could not wish for better weather and a better group of  re-enactors onsite to entertain our visitors!  Once again the interesting yet funny story telling in the style of Monty Python was a massive hit!

This last weekend we had the 'No Name' re-enactors demonstrating onsite. The group demonstrated different crafts and told stories of how people lived from Iron age up to Medieval times. This included wood turning on a pole lathe, weapon and tool making, story telling, weaving and net making.  We also had re-enactors occupying our Iron Age Roundhouse!   We welcome the group back over August Bank Holiday weekend.

Live period demonstrations all this weekend at Ryedale Folk Museum with the No Name Group ! They will be covering more than one period of traditional ways of living and crafts over the weekend - drop in to travel back in time ..... This is a video of a previous encampment by the re-enactors at our Museum  when they were living as Romans, Saxons and Vikings - 

68th (DURHAM) LIGHT INFANTRY AT HUTTON-LE-HOLE & RYDALE 1811 1811 (An outline) Britain is at War, there is a Tory Government and the system of Governance is changing. In February King George the IIIrd was pronounced ‘unfit’ to rule having descended into madness. His son George the Prince of Wales has been declared sovereign by proxy. He rules as king in all but title. So begins ‘The Regency’. However his extravagant lifestyle and spending continue to make him unpopular as is the Tory Government which has made him Regent. Led by Spencer Perceval, (In 1812 to become the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated.....yet?), the Tory Government is notable only for is lack of senior statesmen. Taxation is rising to pay for the war. The War with Napoleon’s France continues. This year the Royal Navy has again defeated a French Fleet at the Battle of Lisa on March 13th. Whilst Napoleon himself fights the armies of Russia and Austria in central Europe a succession of his Marshalls lead ...

Come and see Napoleonic re-enactors and find out what life was like as a foot soldier this weekend. Did you know that one of Napoleon's jailers came from Ryedale, follow this link http://www.ryedale.co.uk/ryedale/misc/ryedalehistory/grimes.html Jonathan Severs

World War 2 Weekend is here again. Tomorrow and Sunday.Re-enactors being British and American Paratroops, Home Guard and real Land Army girls will be here. There will be plenty to see and do all weekend including air raids and real weapons and vehicles from the era. Jonathan Severs

World War Two weekend at the museum was a big success. To see some of the things that were happening click on the videos and slide show below. Below is a video featuring World War One rifles, which were used in the Second World War by the Home Guard. C Gough

Where could you go in a museum and see activities from completely different eras within yards of each other? Ryedale Folk Museum, of course. We had an excellent group of iron age re-enactors who were demonstrating different crafts from the period. These included wood-turning, pottery, weaving and textiles. Today, volunteers and staff were treated to a lovely dinner of stew, cottage pie, beetroot, and jacket spuds. Us blokes were even lucky enough to get a pint of Black Sheep. For afters - if you had room, was a smashing apple crumble and cream. Thanks very much to everyone who prepared that lovely meal. After dinner we got busy harvesting the cornfield. We got off to a slow start due to the weather, it was very overcast and drizzly before dinner, but we got the field done with the binder and stooked the sheaves. The binder probably dates from the 1940's, a Sunshine Massey Harris from Australia, and the tractor used to pull it is a MF 135 from the 1970's. Jonathan Severs