August 26, 2011

Current research areas: England

Since my persona is based in fourteenth century England, that's where I've been focusing most of my research/reading lately.  It's one of my favourite moments in time...so much change, so much adversity that our ancestors had to overcome.  Character building, I think, towards the empire that Great Britain would eventually become.

My persona research has led me to find out some really interesting things about England from that time period.  But I think the highlight of my journey was my visit to my namesake's hamlet, Wexcombe, in Wiltshire.  The history of this little settlement (it's hardly a village) goes back, as far as I can tell, to the ninth or tenth century.  There has been a manorial estate in the hamlet as early as the Norman Conquest, sometimes in the hand of the Crown and sometimes not.

I was able to visit on my honeymoon to the UK.  I also visited the nearby area, including the old Wilton Mill, one of the last working windmills in the UK, and the village of Great Bedwyn.  It was a bit thrilling for a geeky SCAdian like me.  Not many people get to see where their persona may have walked--if not fictional, of course.  :-)

I plan to collect all my little research tidbits into a woven background "story" for my persona, as a means to help me "feel" her and what her life would have been like.  This is my A&S 50 project...to gather 50 points of interest for my persona.  I hope to have an informal paper on it, mostly for my own reference.  So far the "work" is coming along well.