A Nantwich man has taken part in commemorations of the Battle of Lexington and Concord to mark the 250th anniversary since the start of the American Revolution.
Richard Marren, who founded re-enactment group the 23rd Regiment of Foot, Royal Welch Fusiliers, travelled to Boston for the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord – the first battle of the war in which the 23rd Foot fought.
Using the military accoutrement expertise of West Yorkshire manufacturer Wyedean Weaving, Richard created his own uniform to meet the exacting standards of the historic event.
He joined re-enactors across the world to portray the “redcoats” who fought at Lexington Green and “Battle Road”, the fight between Lexington Green and the town of Concord.
Around 350 re-enactors portrayed the British Army and the event included a six-mile night-time march along the route taken by the regiment in 1775.
Richard said: “It’s critical that we research our uniforms from scratch and go for the highest quality.
“For this particular re-enactment, organisers can refuse you entry to an event if your uniform isn’t authentic.
“To achieve this, we go thread to thread comparing today’s recreations with examples from the past.
“For this event, we worked with Wyedean to base our 23rd Regiment of Foot, Royal Welch Fusiliers military lace on the original sample held in the 1768 Lace Book at Windsor Castle.
“During the event we marched 18 miles in total and it was amazing to be part of what was almost a full sized company, which is rare for a redcoat re-enactment.
“It was so tough and everyone was exhausted by the end, but we all felt we owed it to the soldiers of the past to continue.”
Wyedean’s business development director Rosie Wright said regimental lace is made on the company’s site at Bridgehouse Mill with the family business holding 5,600 metres of lace across 70 distinctive designs, each woven with heritage in mind.
She added: “The regimental laces are woven on traditional shuttle looms onsite in our Haworth Mill, and where required we can create new designs or tweak the old designs according to customer requirements.
“Over the last six months we have also dedicated one of our needle-looms to weaving these intricate laces due to the increase in orders.
“As specialists in military uniform accoutrement, we have a rich history spanning 50 years of creating 128 unique designs, many of which have subtly evolved to reflect regimental changes over time.”
Orders of regimental lace have increased by nearly 20% as re-enactment groups across the UK create replica British regimental uniforms associated with the 250th anniversary of the American War of Independence.
Richard added: “Wyedean were fantastic in ensuring the lace was a truly accurate representation of that used on the uniforms from the era and as a result the lace looks more striking than ever before and my uniform passed the re-enactment authenticity standards – which is a real achievement.
“Our re-enactment group is expanding rapidly and we have roughly 30 members worldwide.
“The Boston event is an experience I will never forget and I’m already looking forward to our next event at Windsor Castle and a large American War of Independence at Moira Furnace in Leicestershire in July.”
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