York School of Defence

Cutlass is featuring heavily in our workshops and classes at the moment, and it was absolutely wonderful to be invited to teach some cutlass drill to York Sea Cadets on Friday evening. A fantastic bunch with some real talented swordfolk coming through the ranks!

Thanks to our first course booking up in record time we're hosting the same content taught by the same great instructor on a different night! We'll be strictly limited to ten spaces. This time the course will take place between 19:00 and 20:30 on a Wednesday! Drop me a message or head to www.yorkschoolofdefence.co.uk/longswordcourse if you'd like to book or find out more!

We had an absolutely splendid time at Bladeworks 2026, it's one of our favourite events and we're so lucky to be invited back every year. It's full of fine folk and whimsy, and it has a splendidly chilly beach for splashing about on. If you haven't been I recommend adding it to your "must visit" list of events, especially if you enjoy the vibes of the things we do at the YSD! You'll find similarly minded people at the MCG who host Bladeworks.

This year we brought classes on savate (taught by Lauren), pugilism (taught by Mark) and some cutlass/boarding action work from moi.

We were looked after and made to feel welcome by everyone at the MCG, they prepared an amazing meal on the Saturday and provided us with food, a roof over our heads and some great things to do across the weekend.

Five swords out of five, will definitely stab again.

Prep for Bladeworks is going well...

We've got a splendid eight week beginner's longsword course coming up! We kick off the 2nd of July and it's just eighty of your shiny pounds for lots of awesome tuition in medieval and early renaissance longsword fencing. Drop me a message or head to www.yorkschoolofdefence.co.uk/longswordcourse if you'd like to book or find out more!

It's been incredibly rewarding to take a lot of non-wrestlers through their first bits of grappling in our 14th & 15th century class. Given the dire state of wrestling in HEMA it's been great to explore why doing the thing is not the same as understanding the thing, and why the only way to understand the thing is to try doing the thing in earnest against someone who doesn't want it done to them. Pressure test your stuff!

Top work all around.

Fightcamp Skirmish was fantastic, great vibes as always. We were able to indulge our research interests with a class on walking stick/umbrella from Lauren and bowie knife from yours truly (I promise the book is in progress and will definitely happen!) Thanks to and for having us down to teach and help out, and to and Rob for the photos, and to everyone who took part for indulging us with fancy hats and fabulous skirts.

Don't forget, it wasn't an April Fools', we're actually doing the thing. It's actually, genuinely happening and we're going to have a giggle learning about why the spadroon is the best sword and (because we're fair and impartial) why it's also the worst.

A one day event in the lovely little city of York for twenty of your shiny pounds. Get in on the ground floor for our first year and help us turn it into something special.

https://spadroonfest.co.uk/

Deets ‘n’ Tickets – 5padr00nFe5t! Stuff will happen from 10:00 at the Melbourne Centre, Escrick Street, York, YO10 4AW. Pay us £20 to help us cover the hall hire for the day. Only digital payment, no attache cases of greenbacks.Before you book you might want to read the legal stuff so we don’t get in trouble with our mums.