SOME people grow vegetables in an allotment while others get sweaty in a gym.

But for a small hardcore dressing in armour and smacking 10 bells out of each other equals relaxation.

I’ve seen a few battle re-enactments in my time but they were sedate affairs – some marching here, an occasional clashing of pikestaffs there.

I’ve never seen anything, however, as violent as the display I saw on Bank Holiday Monday at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire.

Nor have I been quite so mesmerised.

The fighting took place on grass within the castle walls, the encircled audience four or five deep. I did wonder why there was a metal railing enclosure in the centre. Their purpose soon became apparent.

An announcer who reminded me of Andy Parsons of Mock The Week dressed in chain mail welcomed suits of armour into the arena. I say suits of armour because I only have Andy Parsons’ word for it that there were actual men inside the tin-can bodywork. From their subsequent display I would quite happily have believed they were Terminators. Each brandished an evil-looking weapon, twirling them menacingly.

I was expecting a little jig on the grass like aggressive-looking Morris dancers. But on the command of Andy Parsons the armoured men-mountains charged into each other like Exocet missiles, smashing great dents into their opponents’ helmets with axes, swords, bludgeons and balls-and-chains.

No move was off-limits. There were metallic head-butts, groin-thwacking, elbow-barging and bone-crunching rugby scrums.

It was all done with the greatest of glee.

It soon became apparent what the metal railings – or crash barriers as I believe they are better known – were for. Mediaeval marshals could barely shore up the barriers quickly enough as the warriors battered each other mercilessly.

After several murderous minutes, Andy Parsons said: “We’ll have a five-minute break now to check there are no broken bones.”

Then it was the turn of the ladies who proved just as aggressive as their male counterparts.

At the end all of the fighters – who came from all over the UK and Eastern Europe – hugged each other as much as it is possible to hug somebody in a full suit of armour. There was clearly a lot of love between these brave warriors, so much so that one of the female fighters had proposed to her boyfriend in the arena that morning.

“That’s him lying unconscious on the grass over there,” said the man standing next to me, who’d seen the event earlier.

I looked around the castle and saw smile after smile on the faces of mums, dads, children and grandchildren.

It’s amazing how a dash of violence on a Bank Holiday Monday lifts the spirits.