Back in Time at the Loxwood Joust

Hello, welcome to ActivityQuest, the podcast that's packed with stuff to do. In this week's episode, Adam is visiting the Middle Ages. He's going back in time to Lockswood Joust. My name's Bex, every week we go up and down the country on the quest for something epic. This week, Adam's journeying to the Kingdom of Lockswood. It's in Surrey, and he's taking on some quests and wandering around a bustling medieval fantasy kingdom. Thanks Bex, yes, I'm here today at Lockswood Joust in Lockswood. It's in Surrey. I'm not entirely sure what to expect. There's lots of people dressed up. We've got a sort of medieval vibe going on here. So I'm going to go inside through this forest and take a closer look. Now this podcast is obviously called ActivityQuest. I have been on a lot of quests in my time, but none more questier than this. I'm Morris Bacon and together with my son Danny Bacon, we run this event called Lockswood Joust. I have had an amazing time today. It's been so much fun for the people who haven't been here. What is Lockswood Joust? It is the best event like this of its kind in the UK. We started as a sort of family medieval festival, traditional sort of thing that you see. And over the years it's developed into something quite unique really. We have now an artist's director, so we have actors as well as reenactors. And we mix the two into storylines and we encourage people to get involved and come here and do quests and dress up and become part of the story. I think one of the incredible things about the lockswood Joust is that it has a storyline to it. So let's dive in. "Welcome, traveller," says the guide, "you'll find yourself immersed in the fair realm of lockswood. And though you may be far from your home, worry not for you are amongst friends." Today we present the grandest of celebrations, the marriage of Abba Loveid, Queen Helena. The royal wedding will be the highlight of our summer and all are invited to partake in the splendor and joy of the occasion. So Noble visitor take your time, explore every corner of lockswood marvel at the grand wedding festivities, taste the delights at the market and lose yourself in the beauty of the woodland. Whether you're here for the royal wedding, the festival, all the noble quests, lockswood welcomes you with open arms and a heart full of joy. Let's wander around and find out more. Walk us through what the site looks like. So we come in for a. So the idea is that you park your car in the 23rd century and you walk through our entrance marquee and you're in the 15th century. They're about, you know. And so we have this amazing woodland, this ancient woodland. It has a very special vibe to this woodland. I think people feel it as they walk into it. This is something a little bit different. And to be honest with you, that's how we found that this land was just by. I was looking for some land really to do this event on. We used to rent land somewhere else and I needed somewhere to have a special feel to it. And the minute I came saw this about 15 years ago now, I just felt a vibe that was just magical. And it seems like that here, so it's naturally. We don't really. I mean, obviously we put stuff in. But the vibe that you get here is just the vibe of the land. And it is quite a magical place. Anyway, you're walking through the woodland and we have all sorts of characters and the guards greet you and then you have the handfasting, you have the witches, you have the talking wall, and then you go over a little bridge and you come to where the executioner is and his amazing show, I don't know if anybody of you saw it anyway today, but it is quite spectacular, his show is really good. That's a replica, by the way, that rack is a replica of the one that's in the Tower of London. It's a working rack as well. And then we have all the things where you participate in, like the scribe and the blacksmith and the copper wall making and the copper chain making and all that stuff in there. And then you go over another bridge and you come to the stage where the former is, we have this amazing banner coming out from Spain called Trobard du Morte. They come here every year and they're just like an incredible band. And then we have the gestures as a show there and also some other people do shows during the day and the Queen does something there and then the guards do something there. Anyway, you can say, "You walk through that woodland there, there's a cafe in there as well." You walk through that and there's a meat shack in there and there's a bar in this woodland bit. You look through that through our castle walls into our main jasmine arena meadow which is as you come in you enter the shopping portal where you can buy lots of amazing things, lots of handmade things and then as you walk around the jasmine arena there's the the Royal Quarter where we have a Havagot archery, axe throwing, Havagot crossbow and the jester has a set up here we can do some jestering and some acrobatic things and juggling and then we have an old little stage in there for the children where the gestures are showing the puppet lady, a lot of our leases are showing there as well. And yeah, and you walk around and we've got some food and we've got this amazing bankwitting marquee and we've got the bar and we have the Invictor, people who have a great set up there, the people who do the real fighting, they're the real smash, smash, wallet, wallet guys and then we have the traders who don't have their own medieval set up but you know, arts and crafts traders there as well. And also not forgetting we have a living history set up over there as well. So that's all in this big big our biggest meadow here is that suddenly. So we're currently watching something called the Nute Grinder which is about 40 people in a family costume and we're all mum. We're literally attacking each other with swords and axes and laces. I've never seen anything like it right now. We've got two high ears, Havagot! And now we're going to have to go through all the problems. [Music] [Music] I think the atmosphere here is incredibly wholesome. Everybody is wonderfully supportive of each other. We've got actors that are wandering around. We've also got guests that come in full dress up. As the founder, that's got to fill you with a nice sense of pride, right? I've been working in entertainment. I left school at 15 and I was actually a drummer. I went on a road playing drums some long time ago now. I've always worked in entertainment. Having a place where people have a really good time is great for me. This is what I've done all my life really. It's just a different form of entertainment if you like. What warms my heart is seeing people enjoy themselves. And we have a lot of people having a lot of enjoyment here. So that makes me really happy. So it's on throughout August. It's first three weekends of August. Any plans for next year? We'll do another three weekends. That's a given. Whether we do anything else. We've always changed stuff. We've added public camping now to our event. That's only when we started last year for one weekend. This year we're doing the three weekends. We work on the land issues. So when we finish there's a few more events that happen here. We don't do it but we rent the land out to some other people. And then the grass grows and the sheep come. And we grow sheep here during the winter. And then they go and the grass grows back up again. And we take a crop of hay and it's cut just before we have these events. And it's a cycle here. And we do more weekends I don't know. But we will always be looking to improve on what we've done. Find new ideas, find things that will make people even more happier. And hopefully we can just keep doing that. Because it's important for Daniel and I to be excited about it as much as the public. And we like doing new things. We like discovering new things, finding new things, doing them. And I know that I've got issues the first time here. So we started 14 years ago here. It's very different to 14 years ago. It's quite small compared to this 14 years ago. If somebody is coming for one of the other weekends in August. What's your top tip? What would you say is something that they absolutely have to do? or see or try while they're here. - It was loads to see. I think the executioner show is quite superb. John White, who is the executioner, or Gilbert Savage. His show is what he's saying is actually what happened. He's just a great interpreter of history. And it's really good. So he's really good, but there's all the living history people there, very knowledgeable people, he's going to ask them chat to them, talk about stuff. And the Invictor people are great if you want to see competition fighting. I mean, they have people coming from Ireland, from Europe this year to compete in what they do over there. And lastly, I shall be last weekend's a big, big competition here for the Invictor people. So yeah, but there's just loads of the band, Robert and I more, I mean, I love them. I've worked in music with my life, and these guys just really move me. It's a really fantastic show they do. And imagine, flagging is the two minstrels. There's a lot of really good actors who are funny and great characters. So obviously everything we put on here, we try and make great, although at least we enjoy, and think, OK, that's good. We don't just put things on for the sake of filling the day. We try and find really good things to do. So I'd say come and see everything, because I think it's worth it. It's come and see everything. [MUSIC PLAYING] Find out more by searching for lockswood joust. I'm Bex, and this has been a podcast from the UK's Children and Radio Station Fun Kids. Listen to me on your DAB digital radio, online, on the free Fun Kids mobile app, and on your smart speaker. Just say, play Fun Kids every weekday from 4 p.m. See you soon. [MUSIC PLAYING]