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(oft referred to as the Black Chicken of Death in
honour of the previous banner) Fire and Steel is a Living History Group based on the Dark Ages Period in the British Isles and Western Europe. We try to re-create the period (in particular the fighting and feasting) as best we can. The group was originally formed approximately 14 years ago by a group of like minded loonies who enjoyed the living history movement and wanted to form a group in the Newcastle area. This was mainly due to the lack of anything suitable in the area. We are the oldest Dark Age Living History Group in Newcastle, to the best of my knowledge and whilst our membership is based primarily in the Newcastle/Lake Macquarie area, our regular membership extends south to Sydney and west to Cessnock. "Fire and Steel" was the name chosen to represent the group and since then has participated enthusiastically in many of the inter-club events in addition to the Fire and Steel organised events and shows. We fight using blunt steel weapons, have minimum armour requirements and set target areas for safety reasons, but none of this detracts from the fun and the spectacle of our combat. The sound of steel on steel (and wood and leather) is part of the whole experience of living history combat. There really is no substitute for it. New members are encouraged to produce or acquire their own equipment and clothing themselves, although we do have some equipment to lend trainees whilst they are at training sessions. We have standards that need to be maintained to ensure that we do not present an overly inaccurate picture of these times. Some concessions are sometimes unavoidable, and if you observe some aspect that does not appear to your knowledge to be accurate then feel free to ask us if it is so. We take great pride in presenting ourselves as re-creations of Dark Ages warriors (and others) but will refuse to present something as being accurate to the period when it is clearly not so. Once they have completed this not so onerous task, new members are pretty much free to pursue any aspect of living history in our period that takes their fancy (which can be a lot or little depending on your preferences). In addition to the fighting we also engage in feasting and often attend interclub meets where we dress in period costume all the time, feast (eating period food and using period cutlery and tableware) and try our skills in combat with other groups and participate in period games. A number of our members pursue periods outside the Fire and Steel outlines in other clubs, but we try to keep them separate in order to keep the theme of Fire and Steel consistent.
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