Whitworth Park, Dogwatching and Medieval Combat

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It has beautiful botanical life, with a great variety of trees and flowers blossoming this spring, a sculpture park, and a picnic space, not to mention its direct proximity to the Whitworth art gallery, but those are not the reasons I like to visit Whitworth Park. The reason I go visit it (and most parks to be honest) is to go see people walk their dogs.

It's a guilty pleasure. And I'm not alone. Many animal lovers who can't afford the money or the space to have a pet often visit parks to see the dogs they can't have and, on lucky days, pet one of them.


The best day to go "dogwatching" is on Sundays, a very popular day for visiting parks in general, and on Whitworth it also means an ice cream truck. So, I went a few Sundays ago and besides the ice cream, the blossoming flowers, and the dogs playing catch, there was something else that caught my attention: a group of young people in medieval grab were practising Medieval Combat. They had big shields, and swords and spears and seemed to have great fun. I was thrilled.

I decided I'd go and try to join them next Sunday. But to make a great impression I decided to be as historically accurate as possible. I decided to make an appearance as a Celt Warrior. It did not go as well as expected. First, I discovered that while it showed commitment appearing almost naked and covered with blue paint and a longsword screaming "FREEDOM!" is rather inappropriate. Second, I also discovered that I made a vital mistake: The Naked Celt Warrior comes from reports from the Roman period not the Medieval period. Probably I should just have visited their page Historia Normannis and joined the Manchester Cell Group instead.

I did get to see a beautiful Saint Bernard having his daily walk, so the day wasn't wasted after all.

#dog_friendly
#family
#humour
#outdoor
#parks
#unusual_things_to_do
%wnmanchester