This weekend #exeter went on an outing to Joust at Berkeley Castle.

Nick gave me a lift and we followed James who was driving Roz, Becky and Dave. Duds was already there when we arrived, while Andi and Rosie met up with us later in the day.

When we arrived we had to drive down a thin dirt track to get into the car park which was essentially a field. As soon as we stepped out of the car we could hear the sound of cannon fire in the distance.

After going through the ticket barrier with our pre-purchased tickets we were astounded by the number of tents that had been set up on midsummer meadow. There were hundreds of small traders selling all sorts of medieval styled items from swords and bows to tunics and tables. In the centre of all the stalls was a large jousting arena.

We set off to find Duds who was watching a demonstration of medieval cannons at the seige area. By the time we arrived the cannons were being packed away. However we stayed around and watched a demonstration of armour piercing archery.

Once the archery had finished we went to look at the programme to see what else was on. As there wasn’t going to be any jousting for about an hour we went and got some food. I had an organic beef burger with mustard and tomato relish. I washed that down with a pint of cider. Becky bought a cup of mead which we all tried. It reminded me of cough mixture.

The jousting started at 12.45 when six knights on horseback entered the arena. I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the jousting itself since there was a post in the way, however I did manage photos of the knights and also when they were hand to hand fighting in the arena.

After the jousting we went to look around the stalls to see what was for sale. Becky was rather interested in buying a sword and had a look around a number of the arms selling traders. When we had exhausted the first batch of stalls we went back to the main arena to watch a falconry display. At one point the falconer asked members of the audience to lie on the ground in a line. He then got the hawk to swoop low over them to his glove at the other end of the line.

The falconry finished after half an hour. Becky, Dave, Nick and I went to look around the second lot of stalls. We then watched a mock siege before meeting up with everyone else. Nick had to leave us as he was off to another part of the UK. We said good bye and then went to look around Berkeley castle itself.

The castle is not huge but it does have all the requirements of a real castle such as battlements, thick walls and being called a castle. We left a quick note in the visitors book before heading home.