Salford home to UK’s oldest Viking re-enactment society

One of the UK’s oldest Viking re-enactment societies continues to educate and entertain the people of Salford.

Ydalir Vikings is a re-enactment society that focus on the Viking period in history, that have been in action since the 1990’s, offering training sessions and performing in events.

The Vikings take part in weekly training sessions at Beesley Green Community Centre in Worsley.

The group is family friendly, including a members from a wide range of ages and backgrounds.

Neil Lucock, former group leader said: “We’re not a huge group, we’ve got about 30 odd members, but some of those are children. Its a family friendly activity.”

The Ydalir Vikings act as both an educational and entertainment tool for anyone who comes to their events.

Neil said: “The Viking Age is much more interesting than just fighting with a sword. Its really educational but we also intend to put on a good show and entertain people.”

He continued: “We try to show people the crafts, the combat techniques, the dress and the skills people had.”

Lucock explained the importance of materials in the Viking Age, as he said: “Women would spin wool. Making a set of clothes would take months and months of work, and the sail of a Viking ship; that starts as somebody with a bit of wool.”

Each event demonstrates all walks of Viking life, showing there was more to the Viking people than combat. Their events include battle re-enactments as well as textile workshops, leatherworking, cookery and woodworking.

Lucock emphasised that many people join the society in the hopes of learning more combat, he said: “A lot of people start coming in as combatants because that’s quite fun, and then they kind of realize there’s more to the Viking Age.”

Despite being a local community, the group is part of a nationwide society called ‘The Vikings’. This allows for people from different groups to take part in different demonstrations.

Lucock added: “Other people can come to our shows and participate and we can do the same with other people’s shows.”

The group’s name, ‘Ydalir’, was inspired by the Norse god of Winter, Ull. The “Yew Dales” were home to Ull and were eternally damp. The group chose this as their name as it reflected them being based in Manchester.

The group’s final training session of 2024 is set to take place on Tuesday 10 December.