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History festival hosts jousting and re-enactments

Sophie Parker
BBC News, Wiltshire
Reporting fromBroad Chalke
Clara Bullock
BBC News, Wiltshire
BBC A woman in a blue dress is standing next to someone in a brown animal costume.BBC
History fans celebrated at a Wiltshire festival on Saturday

While music fans are at Glastonbury Festival, history lovers are enjoying a very different event.

The Chalke History Festival in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, is in full swing, demonstrating historic methods of jousting and hay stacking.

From 23-29 June, the festival is hosting talks about history from 175 experts, including the likes of Kevin McCloud, Al Murray, Michael Palin and Ian Hislop, alongside a programme of re-enactments from different time periods.

James Holland, founder of festival, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled, we had lots of people here, the sun has been shining."

A man in a wide straw hat is standing next to a black horse. The man is smiling at the camera. Behind him, out of focus, are people walking past and trees.
Actors take part in re-enactments from different historic periods

Meanwhile, Dominic Sewell has been preparing for a jousting demonstration.

"Children are often captivated by knights and jousting and as there are no princesses or dragons here, we have to make do with fighting each other," Mr Sewell said.

A traditional metal armour for a horse is laid out on a wooden box in the grass. The front piece resembles a horse's head.
Specialist armour protects the horse during the jousting

The horse armour is designed to protect horses from splinters or "anything else that might come their way," Mr Sewell said.

"As well as that we have a specialised helmet for jousting which is called a frog mouth helmet, it has a wide aperture where the eye slits are."

Two men wearing historic soldier uniforms are sitting on a picnic bench. One of them is holding a portion of chips in his hands. There are food stalls behind them and people at other picnic tables eating food.
Re-enactors Andrew and Jamie enjoyed some chips during a break
A man is standing on the top of a pile of hay, with one hand on his hips and the other resting on a pitchfork.
The festival showcases traditional methods of farming

Mr Holland built a traditional hay stack over the week and said he had "the time of his life" doing it.

"I'm very interested in the history of agriculture," he added.

Three men are standing next to a guillotine. One of them is holding a melon that appears to have been cut open by the guillotine.
Adam, Will and Phil have built a historic guillotine, which they will demonstrate on Saturday afternoon - with a dummy

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