Coldstream Civic Week - Flodden Day
A sunny Coldstream today played host to a calvalcade of some 200 equines on their way to pinch another bit of England in the "biggie" of Civic Week - Flodden Day.
What passes for a heavy police presence hereabouts (I counted 7 Police Officers at one point) was on hand to halt the traffic for the ceremonial ride out of the Coldstreamer and his company of 250+ horse to Flodden Field, which is actually at Branxton, rather than Flodden, in Northumberland - where he half-inches a bit of turf to bring back to Coldstream this evening for an almighty piss up in a tent erected on the Home Park ground of Coldstream Town FC.
To an Englishman like me, this seems most odd to be celebrating probably the heaviest defeat of a Scottish Army by an English one in 500 years of cross-Border fighting - in the battle itself a great swathe of the Scottish Nobility was wiped out and even King James IV of Scotland was killed leading to great political instability in Scotland as his heir, James V - future father of Mary Queen of Scots, was under a year old when he inherited the crown.
The song "Flowers of the Forest" was written as a lament for the defeated of Flodden, although it wasn't written until almost 250 years after the event - most usually heard now as a pipe tune.
Some pictures below of the action and aftermath - all will open a larger version when clicked.
Waiting for the horses
He's cheating - that's not a horse
The Coldstream Pipe Band leading the calvalcade
Real Coldstream Guards - in Coldstream
Here come the horses! The gent in the sash is the Coldstreamer
More horses
The last few horses
The 101st SBC cleansing squad - dealing with the output from the cavalcade before someone writes a letter to the Berwickshire News complaining about the horse dung left behind
Lots of horses, (relatively) lots of police, lots of people and above all lots of horse mess. I wonder if anyone has considered writing to the Berwickshire News about the theft of turf from a field near Branxton......
The terminally interested in the activities on the actual day in September 1513 may read more here, here or here.
What passes for a heavy police presence hereabouts (I counted 7 Police Officers at one point) was on hand to halt the traffic for the ceremonial ride out of the Coldstreamer and his company of 250+ horse to Flodden Field, which is actually at Branxton, rather than Flodden, in Northumberland - where he half-inches a bit of turf to bring back to Coldstream this evening for an almighty piss up in a tent erected on the Home Park ground of Coldstream Town FC.
To an Englishman like me, this seems most odd to be celebrating probably the heaviest defeat of a Scottish Army by an English one in 500 years of cross-Border fighting - in the battle itself a great swathe of the Scottish Nobility was wiped out and even King James IV of Scotland was killed leading to great political instability in Scotland as his heir, James V - future father of Mary Queen of Scots, was under a year old when he inherited the crown.
The song "Flowers of the Forest" was written as a lament for the defeated of Flodden, although it wasn't written until almost 250 years after the event - most usually heard now as a pipe tune.
Some pictures below of the action and aftermath - all will open a larger version when clicked.
Waiting for the horses
He's cheating - that's not a horse
The Coldstream Pipe Band leading the calvalcade
Real Coldstream Guards - in Coldstream
Here come the horses! The gent in the sash is the Coldstreamer
More horses
The last few horses
The 101st SBC cleansing squad - dealing with the output from the cavalcade before someone writes a letter to the Berwickshire News complaining about the horse dung left behind
Lots of horses, (relatively) lots of police, lots of people and above all lots of horse mess. I wonder if anyone has considered writing to the Berwickshire News about the theft of turf from a field near Branxton......
The terminally interested in the activities on the actual day in September 1513 may read more here, here or here.
posted by The Paper Boy at
13:10
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