elephant in the room

the one thing i wanted to do the most on this trip: visit the leeds armouries. no, weapons shouldn't be 'cool' but you know what? they are - along with terrifying and icky and slightly insane.

there are odd gaps to this museum - virtually nothing of the ancient history of weapons, or naval battles, or how they were made, and the evolution of types of weapon and types of warfare was a bit fuzzy. but having said that, we spent a solid three hours looking around and still missed bits, and all would be happy to return. the hall of steel (strictly tower of steel - it's at the end, rather than the central atrium as i had thought from seeing pictures) is impressive for the sheer amount of metal it contains, as well as the stylish design) and i learned many things for the first time (punt guns, details of the indian mutiny, how heavy medieval gauntlets are). but still the maddest thing there is the elephant armour, so here it is.

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the yorkshireness begins back here, if you're interested