Leeds Armouries

A visit to Leeds Armouries is always worthwhile and with this year being 200 since Waterloo there were some special exhibits on display – an animated video-map telling the story of the battle, a talk on the weapons used, and a collection of associated art featuring Daniel Maclise’s huge (45 foot long) and hugely impressive  ‘Waterloo Cartoon’; in addition there were the perennial favourites such as the armoured elephant and Henry VIII’s horned helmet, and we also took in a couple of  demonstrations – on Japanese warriors and two-handed sword combat – that were informative with plenty of opportunity to handle the weapons, all in all an excellent day out.