East Manchester Historical Games - Recently Updated Pages

Thursday Gaming

fozman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:34:11 CDT

On Thursday 17th September 2009 (and every Thursday thereafter), we will be opening up our HQ for an evening of miniature wargaming from 6pm – 10:30pm.

Tables are available free of charge & on a first come, first served basis, you just need to bring your own armies & terrain .

There is sufficient room to set up the following…
• 1 x 9’ x 5’ (Table tennis table)
• 2 x 8’ x 4’
• 5 x 6’ x 4’

The cost will be £4 per person & this includes tea & coffee; cans, crisps, etc will also be on sale.

See here for a map.

Young people under 16 are welcome, but must be accompanied by an adult who must be responsible for them at all times.

If a larger group of players would like to book use of the building on a separate evening (or day), perhaps for a larger game, then this may also be possible.

Finally, every second & fourth Sunday of each month, the Mailed Fist Wargames Club meets at our building, if Sunday gaming is your thing, then why not come along then, too?

Any questions? Contact…
Colin Foster - 07887 562563 - colinsfoster@gmail.com
Colin Betts - 07956 040194 - colin.ceasefire@virgin.net

Links & Useful Contacts

fozman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:26:46 CDT

The first main link has to be for our Wargaming club - Mailed Fist Wargames Club - who meet at our building on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of every month.

Next is Warboots UK run by Paul Reid of MAWS (Manchester Area Wargames Society). Warboots UK run hobby tabletop sales events and make free wargames rules available for download.

Then, having mentioned them in passing, it's only right that we make you aware of MAWS (Manchester Area Wargames Society) the "other" Manchester Wargames club

What is Wargaming

fozman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:11:40 CDT

Wargaming is the depiction of battles from various periods in history using miniature figures of the army of that period, fought on a tabletop playing area.

The basics of wargaming involve moving perfectly detailed and researched metal or plastic figures around on a tabletop covered with model trees, hills, roads, rivers and buildings according to a set of rules you are playing with at the time. The rules basically govern how far the figures/unit or vehicle can move, when they can fight or fire and whether they run away. We like rules that are simple, fast, fun and don't involve any writing or record keeping. Rules reflect a gamer's personality! Virtually anyone can (and does!) wargame – and in fact the hobby has received some recent positive publicity following its appearance during the television series “New Tricks” where one of the main characters is, in fact, a wargamer.

The Kitchen

fozman — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:27:32 CDT

The kitchen before insulation added	The kitchen before insulation added
Type your photo caption or credit here.	A final sort of the plumbing.	Painting.
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Inside the building

fozman — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:04:18 CDT

We've attached some photos of the inside of the building so that you can see what it's like & the progress we're making...

The Kitchen

The Main Hall

The Entrance Hall

Outside the building

fozman — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:01:25 CDT

Here are some photos of the outside of the building & the grounds in which it stands	As you can see, some painting required!
This is a photo down the right hand side of the building. A lot of the undergrowth has now been cut away & some of the rubbish removed	Add photo caption or credit here.
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Entrance Hall

fozman — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:57:40 CDT

Just a few photos of the Entrance Hall into the building.	This one was taken after we'd removed the polystyrene ceiling tiles.
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The Main Hall

fozman — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:55:41 CDT

View of the main hall. Behind the white sheets is camping equipment from the local Scouts that we are storing for them until their new HQ is built	The table set up in the left of the photo is a 16feet long reconstruction of the Battle of Waterloo which the Mailed Fist wargames group (who hire the building) displayed at Britcon 2008	Another view of the room & Waterloo set up
And another view of the Waterloo game. The wall behind now looks totally different having been insulated & re-faced	Type your photo caption or credit here.	Type your photo caption or credit here.
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History of the Building

fozman — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:52:35 CDT

Scouting roots

We believe that the current building was erected in the mid 1980’s and was initially the HQ of the 7th Hyde Scout Group; however following a reorganisation within the Scout District, this became 7/8th Hyde.

By 2002, numbers at the group had dropped to 6 Cubs & 6 Scouts with the Sections being run by the then Assistant District Commissioner (Cubs) – Colin Foster – and the then District Commissioner – Pete Stevenson; unfortunately, it proved difficult to find adults prepared to run the group.

In the light of this, and the fact that Colin & Pete were also running the same sections at the 3rd Gee Cross Group, and following discussions with the parents and lads at 7/8th Hyde, a decision was made to co-locate them at 3rd Gee Cross where they would have an opportunity to experience a wider range of activities with a larger group of people; one of the Cubs involved in this move attended the 21st World Jamboree held in 2007.

Following this, move, the only users of the building were the District Executive Team who met once a month and it was used for an occasional Scout training course. Briefly, following the National reorganisation of age ranges within Scouting and the creation of a District Explorer Scout unit, the building was used as the HQ of this Section. Unfortunately, their few numbers and the costs involved in running the building necessitated their move to 3rd Gee Cross.

Thus, by the “mid 2000’s”, the building was in only occasional use.

The Wargaming link

The Mailed Fist Miniature Wargaming Group has been established well over 30 years and, for the majority of its existence met at the Festival Theatre in Hyde. Occasionally, in latter years, the room where the club met was required for theatre practices, so rather than not meet, the club made use of the HQ of 3rd Gee Cross Scouts where Colin Foster (a member of the club) was an active Leader.

Unfortunately, following severe storm damage in January 2007, this building became unavailable so the District Chairman was approached to see whether a similar arrangement for occasional use by the wargames club could be made; this was successful.

Following a review of the finances & commitments of the Scout District, a decision was made to sell the building as it was seen as not only being surplus to requirements (both now and in the foreseeable future) but also a significant drain on the resources of the District.

The Committee of the Mailed Fist was approached to see whether the Club wished to place a bid for the building, but it was decided against, so a small group of the club’s members took it upon themselves to try to purchase the building to be used as backup for the Theatre and also to look towards having additional activities, generally bringing the building back to life as a Community Resource. They formed a company – East Manchester Historical Games Limited – and placed a bid which proved to be successful.

Now came the hard work, arranging for all of the legal formalities to be completed and take ownership which was finally completed on 27th March 2008; then came the REALLY HARD WORK – refurbishing the building!

By now, the decision had been made to demolish the building at Gee Cross so we were able to remove a lot of useful shelving & kitchen units to help with the refurbishment (and save a lot of money in the process!); in return, we agreed to store Gee Cross’s not inconsiderable amount of camping equipment free of charge.

Through the pages of Freecycle Tameside, we were able to help a local company – TK Components – with their waste material problem (they need to scrap lots of chipboard sheets received as packaging materials, we can use them for wall lining and tables), however, with only a small ownership group, the refurbishment was going to take a long time… which then became more pressing following a decision by the Mailed Fist Club to relocate to the building.

Fortunately, Colin Foster remembered (following a networking meeting at the College) that Tameside College had a Joinery Department so an approach was made to the College through Chris Matthews (one of the Key Account Managers) to discuss the possibility of the joinery students doing some of the work as part of their qualification; an additional benefit being that the completed work would remain in situ as an example of the work that the students could do.

Several meetings with Chris, Kevin Etchells and Simon Rigby-Wilson (both of the Joinery Department) later, permission was obtained and a schedule of work agreed.

The students have now built an internal studding wall along the two main walls of the main hall (using wood supplied by Illingworth Ingham’s at an excellent price) which has transformed the inside of the building; we have even been able to insulate it by making use of waste insulation material from another local company – McVeigh Insulations Ltd – again, further helping reduce landfill.

Not only have the students gained some valuable experience of working in a “real life” situation (with walls that are not square and dimensions that are never convenient!) they have also (taking into account our sourcing of free materials for the walls), helped us move at least 18 months forward on the refurbishment project.

Looking forward, we are now working on insulating the roof with more of the material from McVeigh’s transferred with the aid of yet another local company – Global Heatsave – who made one of their large vans available to us. In addition, we are meeting with Simon Rigby-Wilson in the near future to agree future projects at the building which the next set of students could undertake to meet the requirements of their awards.

The Scouts return

Following the demolition of the building at 3rd Gee Cross, the Explorer Unit moved to the HQ of the 4th Hyde Group, however, due to lack of equipment storage space, they asked whether they could return to their “old” HQ pending the rebuilding of the Gee Cross building to which we readily agreed.

The Building

fozman — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:45:22 CDT

Here we'll be recording a brief history of the building and the progress that we're making to renovate it to make it a more pleasant place to be.

People who've helped

fozman — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:03:28 CDT

In renovating the building from the very tired state that it was to where it is now ('though there's still a way to go), there have been a number of companies & organisations who have been very helpful in providing materials or advice & we'd like to thank them here...

First of all, there's Murpak Limited of Hyde who have supplied all of the screws, bolts & washers to hold it all together & the dustpans & brushes to sweep up the mess that we've created!

There's been TK Components from Denton who allowed us to collect what they considered to be scrap chipboard which we have been able to use to line the interior of the building.

The Hyde branch of Illingworth Ingham gave us fantastic prices on the timber that we needed to fix it all together and coped with our "and can we have that now?" requests!

Karl Rabin of Global Heatsave gave us a fantastic introduction to Don at McVeigh Insulations in Hyde who not only provided the insulation materials, but also the loan of a van to transport it up to the building.

Last, but by no mean least have been the students from the Joinery Department of Tameside College who have not only bolted, screwed & hammered it all together, but have also learned a lot of new skills in their chosen trade & realised that not all walls are square!

Without the support of these people & their companies, we would not have been able to be anywhere near to the stage that we are currently at; we cannot thank you enough.

Where are we?

fozman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:30:47 CST

Our "Official address" is: Scout Building, Knivton Street, Godley, Hyde, SK14 2PU, however, you may find this map to be of use... we suggest that you look at the "HYBRID" Map as this even has a picture of our building!

East Manchester Historical Games Home

fozman — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:16:42 CST

Welcome to the Virtual home of the East Manchester Historical Games Society.

The East Manchester Historical Games Society was created in 2007 to act as a body to further the advancement of wargaming in the Hyde and Manchester area, and wherever possible bring players from other areas outside Greater Manchester to play in games in the Hyde area. A further, important purpose of the society is to provide the opportunity for members to participate in the hobby of collecting and painting military miniatures and researching military history and the history of conflicts whether local or world wide.

Please take a look around the site & check out the photos to see what we get up to!

Future Plans

fozman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:06:47 CDT

Once firmly established in the building on Kniveton Street, in addition to running our own club meetings, we would like to invite interested parties from other clubs & societies, either from within the hobby directly (for example other Wargames Clubs), or slightly further afield, (for example Local Military Modelling, History Societies and ex-service personnel etc) to take part in joint meetings or talks as this will not only help us to increase our knowledge of each others specialist hobbies, but also to share that knowledge with each other.

It is our intention to continue to share our hobby with others through our continued attendance at conventions and shows throughout the country where we demonstrate our hobby, allowing the general public to “have a go”.

Some of our members were exceedingly proud to be asked to attend the “Army in York” open day in 2004 as part of their 60th Anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Kohima – a relationship that has continued to the present day.

We also support Tame Valley Scouts at their “Railroad” show which raises funds to assist in sending local Scouts to the World Jamborees. We also plan to run games & competitions partly as a way of introducing new members and partly as a fund-raising event to allow us to further develop our Society.

In addition, the society are willing to liaise with the history departments of schools and to make club resources and the expertise of members available as well as becoming involved in any local events with a military or historical theme (for example the recent unveiling of the statue of Colonel Robert Duckenfield); we would also hope to generate interest from the Manchester Regiment Museum at the Town Hall in Ashton, again, possibly supporting events that they are running.

As a society, we are also interested and involved in academic research (often international with contacts in other countries) - some of which has already been published - whether related to specific regiments (especially local), individual events within a wider conflict or the impact upon the individual (whether serving soldier, prisoner of war or civilian). Obviously, to achieve this, an appreciation of social history is a necessary adjunct - why conflicts happen and their social and economic consequences. We would hope that, in time, our society will become a valuable community resource.

Who can Join?

fozman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:01:15 CDT

Whilst generally thought of as an adult male-dominated hobby, this is, in fact not the case and we would welcome anyone to join our group provided that they have a genuine interest in what we are doing and trying to achieve. Existing members include businessmen, policemen, accountants, company employees, 'unwaged' and students. We also have disabled members. New members are proposed by an existing one and membership is voted upon by the Club Committee; our only restrictions are that young persons under the age of 14 need to be accompanied by a responsible adult 18 or over. All members and visiting non-members must and will adhere to the standards of behaviour rules which will be in the club rules.