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Visitors to a historic tower were enthralled by an expert display of swordsmanship over the bank holiday weekend. Silver School of Arms turned up the heat at Turton Tower on Sunday, April 20, as they gave demonstrations in historical sword fighting techniques. The Bolton-based group reads through old fight literature in efforts to find the most authentic period fighting styles and weapons, before teaching those skills in its own classes.
Its fighters gave thrilling demonstrations on Sunday from 11am to 4pm, showing off weapons handling and Renaissance weapons. Sword fighting (Image: Pete Kennington) "We are a Historical European martial arts (HEMA) group, and what we do is look at old fight manuals, break them down and work out how they trained with them, we get proper weapons sorted and treat it as a martial art. Read more: En-garde! Art of sword fighting is being kept alive in Bolton Read more: See the industrial relics which powered Bolton's cotton industry next week Read more: Restoration plan for stone landmarks which have stood on top of moors for centuries "Fencing is tag with fighting sticks - this is proper fighting.
A fencing mask has 350 Newton resistance, while ours have around 1600. "We also use police ballistic body armour so we don't damage each other. Bumps and bruises are one thing, but injuring each other is another.
" One of the demonstrators (Image: Pete Kennington) He added: "A lot of us have worked in the heritage industry, and if people come past a heritage site and see people with swords there, it is a nice draw. We also want that appreciation of our own history. "We are a nice draw, and we don't charge, we will just do it, hopefully encouraging people to come in and have a chat about history.
" Silver School of Arms is currently oversubscribed, but anyone who is interested in joining or would be interested in a free taster session when it becomes available can contact them here: https://www.silverschoolbolton.com/ Silver School of Arms (Image: Silver School of Arms) Dave also consults on correct fighting techniques for stage productions.
He said: "I do a bit of that working with actors as well, bringing a bit of historical accuracy into it. "I look at the stuff people are doing, like for Shakespeare, as it is generally the renaissance period that I do." We have featured some pictures of the event taken by talented Bolton News Camera Club member, Pete Kennington.
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