Armour Making

An extract from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

The tradition of making armour for battle goes back thousands of years. Strapping leather together to make a strong material resistant to bronze sword blows was probably the first type of armour ever created. Leather was replaced by chain mail and then this was superseded by full suits of armour made from steel and iron, so heavy that their wearers couldn’t regain their feet if they fell off their horse.

All these forms of armour are celebrated at the Armour Making Contest at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which is held on the Sunday nearest to August 22^nd, the day that the nearby Battle of Bosworth took place in 1485.