Academy of Historical Arts
The Academy of Historical Arts was founded in 2010, and has gone through various evolutions since then to become the organisation that it is today.
We operate a full-time professional training centre in Glasgow, and another professional club in Liverpool, while also performing the role of umbrella body to oversee and help the many HEMA clubs affiliated to us from all across the UK.
We run an online shop, for which we hold plenty of stock at our warehouse in Glasgow, and we are always happy to bring a small shop stall to any event that we happen to be attending. We believe that it is important for people to be able to purchase the equipment and resources they need in order to participate fully and safely in a chosen sport, so we do our best to be part of the solution.
Our guiding principle is that we want to do business with people the way that we would like people to do business with us, so we go to great lengths to be as helpful as we possibly can, in all our endeavours.
Shop
We run an online shop, for which hold stock at our warehouse in Glasgow, so that we can receive your orders and dispatch your goods as swiftly as possible. If you need books, protective gear, or other training equipment for your participation in HEMA, then we can help you!
We try to maintain stock of popular, standard items. We might not have many variations available, but we do our best to make sure that the gear that we recommend to our students is available for purchase.
We deliver within the UK, and can also post abroad.
AHA members are eligible for discounts in our online store; just sign up with an account, then talk to your club leader about being added to your club “team” on our website!
Online courses
We have produced some online courses to help you with your HEMA training. Find them here:
https://academy-of-historical-arts.teachable.com/courses
Find a club
We run a full-time professional training centre in Glasgow, where we have an indoor archery range and where we also teach several different HEMA disciplines. Find out more about the Vanguard Centre!
We run another professional club in Liverpool, where we teach the historical fencing of the 15th and 16th centuries. Find out more about Liverpool HEMA.
Quite a variety of different clubs from all across the UK have affiliated to our organisation. We help with insurance and membership management, as well as providing help with policies and paperwork. Needless to say, one of the things we are happiest to do is to advertise these clubs to prospective members! Find out more about our affiliated clubs.
Affiliate your club
If you run a HEMA club and would like some assistance with insurance, admin, policy documentation, advice for running a club, or membership management, then please look at our information about affiliating your club to us.
We have a very hands-off approach to affiliated clubs. We have no interest in controlling your syllabus or mandating how things must be done. Our only requirements are that you run your club safely and keep your membership and insurance information up to date – beyond that, you can (and should) run your club as you see fit, for the benefit of the people who come to your club.
Information and resources
We have plenty of information and resources for clubs and practitioners. We pride ourselves on being generally useful and helpful, so we make as much of the information available and public as we possibly can.
We are in the process of developing more extensive resources that will be limited just to affiliated clubs, which would be yet another value to be gained by affiliating to us.