The Vicus

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WE ARE A RE-ENACTMENT GROUP WHO PORTRAY LIFE IN ROMAN BRITAIN DURING THE FIRST CENTURY AD.
If you want to fight for the Roman Empire, resist the invader on behalf of the native Britons or help the army by providing food or crafts, we'd be delighted to hear from you.

Who We Are

The Vicus is a UK-wide historical re-enactment and living history group portraying British history of the period covering the Roman invasion of Britain approx. 43-84 AD/CE. We portray military and civilian life for both the Invading Roman forces and native British tribes, and are one of the few Roman-era re-enactment groups to offer both living history and combat and displays.

What We Can Offer

We would typically expect attendance of 12-15 members. Individuals, couples and families are all welcome and are well represented in the group.

There is a lot more to what we offer than "dressing up", we research foods, clothing, crafts and combat methods of the period in order to be as accurate as possible. We leave the 21^st century benefits behind, so the wearing of glasses, watches and modern hair adornment or using child buggies, is prohibited.

Our society is very lucky in that it has a large number of museum conservators and archaeologists, as well as some very skilled crafts persons, which means our attention to detail is very high.

Living History

(or LHE - Living History Exhibit) is the re-enactment term coined to cover a presentation of some aspects of the life of the period. It's the opposite to "show and tell", where re-enactors simply lay out a stall of objects and talk about them. A LHE also infers a certain level of authentic camping .

Within the Vicus our aim is to try and produce a small part of an early Vicus settlement with temporary structures that are used to both house the occupants and to sell, or provide some sort of service to the fort occupants. We're going for that 'shanty" town look with as much of our encampment under awnings as possible.

The group will always come with it's compliment of tents, workshelters and awnings.

Our living history camp features a range of displays, specific attendees depending, including;

Military equipment & training (including our artillery piece)
Cooking and baking with a working oven.
Roman writing
Story-telling and gaming.
Leather work
Braiding/weaving
Carpentry
Blacksmithing
Mail making
Paint and pigments
Tavern

And many others.

Military / Combat Displays

We are the only group in this country to stage competitive combat between Britons and Romans with blunted metal weapons. Some in the group don't possess an LHE activity are purely there as military folk living within the vicus.

We will not try to kid you that our fighting is "real". We are hardly fighting to the "death" or to maim each other.
At the end of the day we are 21st century people who have jobs and families.
That said, we do operate a competitive combat system which is about as close as you will get.

At an event, we pride ourselves on being able to perform a number of different arena presentations. These include:

Missile Weapons - demonstrating the effectiveness and range of slings, bows, javelins and pila
Combat Weapons - actual hand to hand combat between Romans and Britons including "Hollywood heroes"
Get Dressed for Battle - see the differences between how Romans and Britons are armed and armoured
Fashion Show - the clothes worn by British, Roman and Romano British civilians
Kiddie Drill - see the little dears use child sized weapons and shields.
Battle Walkthrough - the audience becomes the Britons.
Sharp Weapon Display - showing the cutting power of sharp hand weapons.

Our arena displays can be tailored depending to the requirements of the event/client. They typically include a brief overview of the roman invasion and the equipment seen on the field (illustrated with semi-scripted combat) followed by a series of unscripted small skirmishes aimed to emphasise earlier points. We are also able to include projectile weapons (arrows, slings, javelins, artillery), test cutting with sharp weapons and ‘Hollywood Heroes’ a light-hearted display of mistakes in film/tv battle choreography.

Our aim in arena displays is to maintain a more light-hearted/humorous feel and to encourage crowd interaction. We can also, if necessary provide our own PA system.

What We Require

We aim to be flexible in negotiation to provide the best event for public, organisers and ourselves. For a full weekend living history encampment and scheduled arena displays we would discuss a price in advance. we would also request access to drinking water, toilets, car parking, a ‘plastic’ camping area and firewood.

If you are considering hiring us for at an event then you might like to know that:

We are professional in our approach and can provide risk assessments, full public liability insurance to £5million and publicity material.
We are available for any public or private event, across this country or international.
We always provide the living history camp and a selection of arena presentations.
We have a number of different arena presentations, we don't just perform the same thing twice a day.
We are capable of providing talks on different subjects and work well within Museums
We typically would not require additional accommodation at an event (i.e. a hall or marquee) so there are no hidden extra costs.

Also bear in mind, that we represent both the Roman and British cultures from a military and civilian standpoint. This can be particularly useful in the light of the educational requirements for primary school students. You won't have to book both a Roman and an Iron Age group.

We are often booked over a year in advance, so contact us early

The Vicus © 2004
All information on this website has been written by members of the group unless other source has been stated. All photographs have been taken by members of the group and belong to The Vicus. Any images not taken by the group
have been credited.