Is there a European historical swordsmanship school in or near the 'great' state of Rhode Island?
Thanks!

Not that I've heard of. However, there are places close enough to be useful. Depending on where in RI you are it can take only an hour to get to my school in West Newton.

The Boston area groups run regular day long events. If you PM me with your email address I'll make sure you get added to the list.

And, lastly, my school is holding a seminar this Sunday :D

Cheers,
Steven

Dear Dmitry,

If you're considering Massachusetts, Worcester is probably an easier trip than West Newton. The Higgins Armory Museum has a historical-combat program; you can see details on the museum's Web site and on the Higgins Armory Sword Guild's Classes page. As a benefit, you get a visit to the museum with every class. Disclosure: I am an instructor in the Higgins' program.

Other Massachusetts groups include the Academy of Knightly Arts in Amesbury, north of Boston. Further south, Forte Swordplay holds classes in Reading and Burlington; Schola St. George's Metro Boston Branch (also see http://www.meetup.com/SSGBoston/) is in Brookline and Watertown; and Kunstbruder, about which Steven writes with justifiable pride above, meets in West Newton. Although it's probably inconveniently far west for you, the Association for Renaissance & Medieval Swordsmanship meets in and around Amherst.

There are two schools of which I'm aware in Connecticut. Sword in the Scroll Fencing Academy is in Willimantic, in the eastern part of the state. Christian Tobler's Selohaar Fechtschule is in Oxford, in the south-west.

Beyond that you can go to New York, but that's a little outside the scope of this note.

I hope that this information proves helpful.

Best,

Mark Millman

Thank you for your replies, gentlemen. I will be in touch. Steven, W.Newton is a bit of a stretch for me travel-wise, but your school does look exactly like the place I was looking for. Mark, I am a member of Higgins, and visit the museum at least a couple of times a year.
I will stop by to observe one of your sessions!

Thanks Mark for the more complete reply. And for the compliment.

Dimitry, since you have no place conveniently close, I strongly recommend getting on the Higgins and Boston Sword Gathering mailing lists. The former through Mark and the latter through myself.

Cheers,
Steven

Hello all,

I hope reviving this thread isn't a bother. I've just moved to RI (right outside of Lincoln), and was wondering if anyone could give me an update as to what's available in the region. I'll need to get settled, but I'd very much like to learn down the road. A perusal of some of the groups described above lead to dead ends.

Thanks!

-Dan

Hi Dan

It looks like the closest longsword group remaining would be Sword in the Scroll, over in Willmantic CT
http://www.wstr.info/

I don't know where the Higgins groups disappeared to or where they practice now. Not sure what Dmitry is up to these days but I believe he is still down south in the state.

I am somewhat a neighbor (up the road by the Ma border) and do a display of early modern swords, along with friends over at the Manville Sportsmens Club (in Lincoln), first weekend each fall.. I am not a practitioner There might be a gathering brewing before that. Spring finally arrived.

Cheers

GC

http://www.meetup.com/BosArm/

Schola Saint George Boston has become independent and is now Boston Armizare, I've been a member for the past five years and if you have any questions feel free to ask here or PM me. I commute from Cape Cod, an hour and a half away and I find it worth the trip not only for the practice but the friendships I've formed.

Stevens group just got a new facility to practice in, and just hosted a cutting clinic a week or two ago, and Forte is going strong as well. The Boston Sword Gathering has grown into IGX Iron Gate Exhibition, and I believe the BSG is being revived as a less formal weekend for the local Boston groups.

The Boston area is quite an epicenter for HEMA training.

Dear Dan,

I see that two of the southern New England groups, Boston Armizare (which you can reach on the Web and on facebook) and Sword in the Scroll have already been mentioned, so I won't go into detail about them here.

The Worcester Art Museum got the Higgins' collection, as you may know, and took over some of the programming. Right now they're offering a rapier-and-dagger workshop, but don't seem to have one for longsword. They may do so in a future class cycle.

Steven Hirsch's school, formerly Kunstbruder, is now Athena School of Arms, which is no doubt why you had trouble finding it from my old post. It's still in the Boston area--in Somerville, just outside of Boston.

Forte Swordplay meets a little further outside of Boston, in Burlington. The trip from Rhode Island to either Forte or Athena is probably about the same.

Further west, in Amherst, there's the Association for Renaissance and Medieval Swordsmanship, which is run by Jeff Lord, a former Higgins instructor. He also organizes an annual historical-combat symposium at The Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies; it's less than two weeks from now, on Saturday 25 April. It's free, but if you're interested in attending you should call the Center to register.

As far as I know, Christian Tobler is still running his Selohaar Fechtschule in Oxford, CT.

And I'll take a moment to plug my own group, in which you might be interested: the Salem Trayned Band (which you can also reach both on the Web and on facebook). We represent the militia of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1629 to 1636 and drill weekly in Medford, MA (again, just outside of Boston). We have full-length pikes (well, sixteen and a half feet, but we couldn't find eighteen-foot ash timber) but we're still working on dressing as well as you do. Feel free to PM me if you're interested in seeing us at one of our upcoming events.

I hope that this proves helpful.

Best,

Mark Millman