10th - 12th July Central England ...

The second weekend of July was a busy one at AoM Towers ...

*It was the Conference of Wargamers weekend, I had a new car to pick up (and worry needlessly about boot space and carrying capacity ... ) ...

*It was the anniversary of the Battle of Northampton (10 July 1460)

*But the CoW early arrivals wanted to visit Northamptonshire's other WotR battlefield at Edgcote (having visited the 1460 field on a previous visit) ...

*And the Sunday evening had been picked for an Andy Gittins memorial event in Windsor (and it would be cruel to miss my old friend's final event)

I'll post a CoW report next, and an obituary for Andy will follow ...

(historians and wargamers reach their conclusions about the orientations at Edgcote - photo by Kiera Bentley)

Edgcote battle was fought in July 1469 near the crossing of the river Cherwell between the forces of Edward IV and his former champion, Warwick the Kingmaker.

The sources leave us with a number of uncertainties over the position and orientation of the battle.

The Royalist leader, the Earl of Pembroke, was taken the following day to Northampton where he was executed at the Eleanor Cross, site of Warwick's earlier victory.

Delayed in Peterborough, I managed to catch up with some of the WD party at the end of the visit.

Back to Northampton for the anniversary, we put up a temporary stand in the car park at Delapre in order to gather our commemorative group together and hand out leaflets ...

(10th July memorial walk to the Eleanor Cross at Northampton)

... and then marched along with local politicians and historians behind members of the Harrington's Companye to the Eleanor Cross - from which the archbishop of Canterbury and the Papal legate watched the battle in 1460.

Roses were laid in memory of the fallen of both sides by the reenactors and by the Northampton Battlefields Society ...

Although I did duck out on Saturday lunchtime for an opening at Kettering Art Gallery, I spent the rest of the weekend at Knuston Hall for the Conference of Wargamers ... before leaving Northamptonshire for Windsor for Andy's last do.

(one of Andy's great loves - the bar at Windsor Football Club - with his friends from recent and long departed times)

We listened to celebrations poetic, personal and musical and played some games of Andy's SoA classic David & Goliath.  I now have a set of cards and rules for the Alexander's Empire game and am hoping to put together a retrospective of Andy's work as a game designer.

He will be much missed by all of us.