Common weapons?

[Patrice]

It would be a waste of clean water. Drinking water will probably be a major problem, so you'll need all the citern water you can get, and no waste it in toilets.

[Patrice]

I bags Patrice for my survival group! Especially if he comes with a few tons of that beautiful breton top soil.

I've got tons! I can give it to you if you come and carry it away!
I live in Central Brittany in an area which long ago was poor soil (gorse-covered moors) but it has changed in the 20th century and I've old traditional paths covered with 50 years of rotten tree leaves, that I would like to see in their original historical shape!

OOOops this thread is really going strange.

[Luddite]

Very interesting debate!

Some 'civilians on here' are insanely well armed.   

To provide my answer to at least part of the OP, here in the UK i would have immediate access to the usual cutlery and food prep. utensils, and general tools like chisels, and stanley knives.  most of which won't be much good actually, certainly for extended tool or weapon use. 

Also, i can get to a well balanced bill hook (machete like hedging tool), a rip hook, a hatchet, and cording (splitting) axe.

I also have a rather nice 6' lemonwood longbow with an 80lb draw weight, and 30 target arrows.

However, according to Zombieland i'll be in the first wave of casualites.  Having failed 'Rule 1: Cardio', i'll be zombified pretty early on i suspect.

 

In terms of the collapse of society, a...i won't say 'good'...more like 'chilling' film to watch on what may happen in Threads. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

It was a made-for-TV docu-drama in the 1980s.  Sure its about nuclear war, but i think it shows the reality of civil collapse rather well.  Certainly not the glamourous outcome of the typical zombie movie.

I particularly like the protrayal of the local council 'emergency committee' and what happens to them. 

[Brummie]

I have a Recurve Bow, an Air Rifle and enough Garden implements (which are in some cases just retooled versions of medieval weaponry on shorter sticks) to arm a small fighting force. My nan owns a small holding in somerset, although it often gets affected badly by heat or rain as it suffers from extremes and is thus fairly useless for growing stuff.

Best bet would be to head for Wales, it rains there enough to have plenty of clean water, whereas England (at least here in the Midlands) its all a bit scarce, and the countryside is probably infested with chemical use which has spoiled everything. South East would be off limits in any disaster.

Surviving of your own back here would be difficult I think because of just how we grow our food with the use of chemicals. Plus its just so densly populated conflicts would break out immediately.

That and if all infrastructure did collapse, we'd all be screwed anyway once the nuclear powerplants implode from lack of maintenance.