Fancy Footwear C. 1450

Knowing how many ladies love fancy footwear, even when worn by a man. I could not resist showing you these worn by Andrew as part of his suit of armour. Very natty!

This armour shown is based on something used in around 1450, when a full suit of armour, weapons and a couple of well trained war horses could only be afforded by the very wealthy man about town.

In the Royal Armouries Museum here in Leeds the are several suits of armour on display. However I really much prefer to catch someone like Andrew who can acually tell you what it is like to wear it in action.

Andrew and Copper Take Time Out

This picture shows Andrew and Copper after their victory in the joust at the Royal Armouries Museum at Leeds in Yorkshire.

Andrew is wearing a made to measure suit of armour, it weighs around 5 1/2 stone taking about one year to make. Also Andrew wears underneath the armour an inch thick padded outfit for added protection and comfort.

Andrew has worked as an interpreter here at the Royal Armouries Museum for 10 years, his job, I think is to bring history to life for the museum visitors. I watched him chatting to some small children after the jousting and they really loved to talk to a real knight about his armour, sword and horse.

Jousting at the Royal Armouries Museum Leeds

This photograph shows Andrew Balmforth riding his charger Copper in the medievil sport of jousting in the tiltyard at the Royal Armouries museum here in Leeds, Yorkshire.

Jousting is a martial sport played by 2 armoured knights on horses and in this particular one they are tilting with the lance. The 2 knights on horseback charge at each other from either end of the tiltyard and attempt to strike the other knight with the point of the lance.

In the middle ages the joust was taken very seriously, it was good training for the field of battle. It was also much more dangerous then too... Many knights made their fortune in these events, whilst many lost their fortune or even life. Henry II of France was badly wounded when an opponent's lance went through his visor and shattered into fragments, penetrating his right eye and temple On 30 June 1559, he died 10 days later.

Later this summer I am looking forward to the Queen's Golden Jubilee International Joust which starts on 29.08.2009 at Leeds in the Tiltyard gallery, at which time I hope to cheer Andrew on to victory.

This post today is the 200th since I started my Leeds in Yorkshire photography blog and I think my photographs have improved since I started back at Xmas 2008. Also my knowledge of Leeds city centre is much better. Lastly I am much more at ease asking someone if they would mind if I used my camera on them! I soon discovered that I had to move on from pictures of buildings and birds.

Andrew Balmforth - Civil Servant and Knight

This picture shows Andrew Balmforth dressed as a mediaeval knight from the middle ages riding Copper a beautiful chestnut charger.

The Royal armouries museum here in Leeds, Yorkshire has a purpose built tiltyard (or tilt yard or tilt-yard) being an enclosed yard for jousting (also known as tilting). Tiltyards were a common feature of late medievil palaces and castles, today they are very unusual.

Jousting takes place here in Leeds at the Royal Armouries Museum on weekends, high days and holidays.

There will be more photographs from the tiltyard at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds over the next few days.

The Royal Armouries Museum - Leeds, Yorkshire

This picture show the first view of the The Royal Armouries Museum here in Leeds that most visitors see.

I am not sure why but the visitors entrance is at the far side of the building from this view. The Royal Armouries Museum building is quite large and was opened to the public in 1996. The museum displays items that are part of the Royal Armouries collection that was wholly based before at the Tower of London.

Today happily if you want to see suits of armour, canon, weapons of war and the like you no longer have to travel south to London, now that this major national museum is based here in Yorkshire.

Entrance to the The Royal Armouries Museum Leeds is free, but some exhibitions may be charged for. Currently the cost of entry to the tiltyard to watch jousting is £2 and the show last around 1/2 an hour.

The water seen on the far right of this photograph is the Clarence dock, part of the Leeds to Liverpool canal, where dragon boat racing took place this summer.

Dragon Boats Racing Clarence Dock Leeds

Todays picture is the last of my small series of photographs taken at this summers dragon boat racing in Leeds, Yorkshire.

Tomorrow on my Leeds in Yorkshire photographs I will be starting with a series images of the Royal Armouries Museum here in Leeds. Its funny the museum has been here for some years now and I only recently visited for more than a cursory look. I knew that there was jousting with knights but until I chatted to a couple of these chaps I had no idea how interesting this might be.

Dragon Boat in front of Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds

This picture shows a dragon boat on the canal, Clarence Dock with the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds is in the background.

There is another photograph of the dragon boat racing in the heart of Leeds on the Leeds Daily Photo posted yesterday.

Drummer Dragon Boat - Clarence Dock Leeds

This picture is another from the Dragon Boat races in Leeds, Yorkshire this last weekend.

I think the trick with dragon boat racing is to have 16 beefy chaps on the oars and a girl like the one in the photograph beating the stroke. Also I think I make be correct in saying it looks like she is shouting words to encourage the rowers. I may be wrong, perhaps she is shouting could they go back because she left her mobile on the bar!

You can see another image from the 2009 Leeds Dragon Boat races on my pictures of Leeds in Yorkshure blog.

You cannot see it in this picture but this area of Leeds down by the canal basin has changed incredibly over the last few years. Someone commented about yesterdays photo on this blog about the change and it is true it is like a whole different city down by the canal. I will post about this area over the next couple of weeks.

Dragon Boat Races - Clarence Dock, Leeds

This is one of a small series of pictures from this years dragon boat races at Clarence Dock in Leeds city centre.

I was visiting the Leeds Royal Armouries Museum adjacent to the canal when I saw the dragon boat racing in progress so I spent some time watching and took some photographs for the Leeds Daily Photo

The 40-foot boats can hold up to 16 paddlers (plus one drummer at the helm).

Genuine Fake Monet at Leeds Art Gallery

In the photograph above you can see artist John Myatt next to one of his genuine fakes, this one a Monet.

John Myatt was here to discuss some of his work and life here at the Smart Gallery, Leeds. Unlike many painters working today his life really is worth discussing. I already knew something of John before I saw him recently on the BBC chatting about his work and life.

John is perhaps best known today as an art forger placed an advert in Private Eye (UK satirical magazine) "Genuine fakes. Nineteen and twentieth century paintings from £150". What seemed like a good idea at the time led to his downfall and he was eventually arrested and jailed for one year, serving four months for conspiracy to defraud.

I would dearly love to own one of his art works they really are very good. His paintings in the "style of" Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Vincent Van Gogh to name but a few were good enough to fool people.

After his release from prison the Scotland Yard detective who arrested him asked him to paint a picture, later becoming a friend.

Today John paints on the right side of the law and his ‘Legitimate Fakes’ command thousands of pounds and are collected in their own right.

I was pleased to meet and have a few words with John and as you can see he was kind and posed for my camera.

Paddington Bear Seen in Leeds City Centre

The above picture shows Laura and Paddington Bear who I spotted whilst walking around Leeds city centre.

There are many places I have yet to explore but thanks to this blog I am like Paddington, quite intrepid these days.

Laura is a student here in Leeds and works in a shop called teddy & co in the shopping heart of Leeds.




This image above shows the front of the Teddy & Co shop in the county arcade, Leeds. Teddy and co are the local Steif club store and there you can get Paddington Bear, pandas, Teddy bears and lots of other gifts for children big and small.

Old Library Building, Holbeck, Leeds

This picture shows the old library in Holbeck a district of Leeds in Yorkshire.

I love this fine old building, only see it occasionally, drove past a few days ago pulled over and took this photo.

Today Holbeck is quite run down and is just a part of Leeds but 150 years ago it was a booming village with the advent of the industrial revolution. Holbeck was a place where they made things, steam engines, machinery and cloth came from the foundries and mills built there. Countries all around the world bought things manufactured in Holbeck.

There were at one time 5 different companies make steam locomotives in this area of Leeds. The worlds first commercial railway using steam powered locos just up the road in Middleton, Leeds in started in 1812 using The Salamaca built by Matthew Murray of Holbeck.

A relic from this age is this nice old public library building built in 1903 from ornate red brick on Nineveh Road. Today it houses a company called WPA Pinfold in design and communication and is now called Ex-Libris.

Holbeck gets its name from the beck (stream) that runs through it.

Leeds Design Innovation Centre - The Calls, Leeds

The picture above shows the dedicated art space in the Leeds Design Innovation Centre. Whilst I may not be entirely sure what goes on in this building I do like this small gallery space. This is the second time I have called in here, last time there was an exhibition of photography.

I asked and they change the art about once a month, it may be a small space but there is some interesting art on display here.



This picture above shows the entrance to the Leeds Design Innovation Centre building on The Calls near the river just south of the city centre. This building is a few doors down from the patisserie at 44 The Calls, Leeds.

The address is:
Leeds Design Innovation Centre
46 The Calls
Leeds
LS2 7EY

Telephone 0113 243 6077

One thing, since I started this blog with my pictures of Leeds in Yorkshire I have discovered a lot about the places and people of my home city. I have walked along The Calls more in the last 6 months than in the past 6 years.

Watering The Pavement in Central Leeds, Yorkshire

These men have been laying some new pavement in the main pedestrian area on Lands lane in the heart of Leeds city shopping district.

I saw the guy with the watering can, watering the newly laid paving and thought it would make a nice photo on this my Leeds in Yorkshire photography blog.

Andy is the man with the watering can, I asked before I took some photographs.