Bios
Dan Shadrake is the founder of Britannia, one of the countries finest re-enactment groups, specialising in the Gladiatorial combat and 5th century, end of the Roman empire re-enactment. He has appeared in many films, including Gladiator and Faintheart and has been historical advisor on many TV programmes.
Ian Weston has been a member of Britannia since 1998, and has been involved with re-enactment since the 1980's. He has taken part in numerous Film and TV projects. Ian is passionate about history and archaeology and has participated in several digs. He is one of the founder members of Portals to the Past.
Mark Halls is a member of Britannia, and is an amateur archaeologist and historian. One of his hobbies is metal detecting around the area he lives, and he has found many beautiful artefacts.
Andy Pilkington is a member of Britannia who specialise in Gladiatorial and 5th century combat and living history.
He is also a member of the Fauconburg Household and the Dogs of War.
Sir John Pilkington, his Tudor Character is one of Andy's ancestors.
Andy has a deep seated love of history and is about to start a degree in this fascinating subject.
Richard and Beverley Bowring are 1940’s enthusiasts and spend most weekends portraying this fascinating period at events around Britain. They have both worked in education, Richard as a lecturer in Graphic design and Beverly as a teaching assistant.
Roly has been a re enactor for nearly 10 years, being a member of Britannia for the last couple of years, but before being involved in mainly Medieval and WW2. Roly has an avid interest in all things Roman and Iron Age, having built and then lived in an Iron Age Village for a summer Roly knows how to relate real life experience to this era of history.
An avid reader and amateur experimental archaeologist Roly has smelted iron from ore, cast bronze and fashined many tools using primitive methods.
Roly worked in conjunction with a team from The National Museum of Wales on their recent Neolithic Hunter project, providing practical assessments of the tools and weapons carried, and manufacturing the arrows used in the display piece in partnership with John Lord (flint knapper extraordinaire).
Roly has also worked on many TV and fim projects, for TV Horrible Histories, Perfect Weapon (nat geo) Ancient Discoveries (History Channel) Time Team (C4) The Romans (S4C) and many films including Ridley Scotts Robin Hood and Kevin McDonald's Eagle of The Ninth in 2009.
