About Us
What began as a personal journey into crafting has grown into a small, independent workshop where each piece carries its own story. From carefully shaped longbows to detailed jewellery and original watercolour paintings, everything is created with patience, care, and respect for the materials used. Banestre Crafting World is not about mass production.
I have enjoyed crafting as a hobby for many years, exploring a wide range of styles—from paper crafts and crochet to jewellery making. Alongside this, I have a passion for medieval history and reenactment. Since retiring from the teaching profession, these two interests have come together, leading to the creation of Black Agnes’s Beadaholic Emporium. My husband has also developed a remarkable skill for crafting medieval-style longbows, now used by many archers within our reenactment groups. Since retiring, he has returned to painting, bringing the same care and craftsmanship to his artwork as he does to his bow making.
There are also our furbabies, that join us in everything we do. Both take part in medieval reenactment and have their own costumes as well. Meet Amber and Ragnar, two very lively Working Cocker spaniels, although Rags has a lot of Springer in there somewhere!
Black Agnes
My medieval character is Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar and March (c. 1312 – 1369). Lady Agnes Randolph, better known as Black Agnes, was the wife of Patrick, the fourth Earl of Dunbar and the second Earl of March.
In her youth she fought for the Bruce, but is better remembered for the defence of her castle. In 1334, Black Agnes successfully held her castle at Dunbar against the English Earl of Salisbury for over five months, despite the large number of engineers and siege equipment brought against her.
“After each assault on her fortress, her maids dusted the merlins and crenels, treating her foes and the dreadful siege as a tiresome jest.”
She is celebrated in a folk song attributed to Salisbury. When one of the Scottish archers struck an English soldier standing next to Salisbury, the earl cried out, “There comes one of my lady’s tire pins; Agnes’s love shafts go straight to the heart.”
She attends tournaments to support the French knights, always dressed in black. Her trademark is a goose feather duster, symbolising how she swept aside her enemies as if they were dust upon her castle walls. She is buried in the vault near Mordington House.
The Bowmaker
Our bowmaker is often seen as Lionel, Duke of Clarence, but also portrays Sir Thomas Banestre who is a real historical figure with a tentative link to our family! Thomas Banastre was the son of Sir Adam Banastre of Bretherton and Joan Petronilla of Claughton. He was born at Bank Hall, Lancashire in 1334.
He fought in France in 1360 under Edward III, joined Prince Edward’s Spanish campaign in 1366, and fought at the Battle of Najera in 1367. In 1369 he was captured by the French and later exchanged.
He expanded his estate through land acquisitions and became a Knight of the Garter in 1375. In 1379, while aboard a fleet led by Sir John Arundel, his ship was lost in a storm in the Irish Sea, and he drowned.