This year was our tenth visit to the Chalke History Festival, we've been regulars since 2013 (except when stymied by automotive issues or Covid). The Festival goes from strength to strength with a slight rebrand this year (it was Chalke Valley, but that sounded a little yoghurt-y) and the merciful loss of the Daily Mail as title sponsor. The crowd is a good mixed bunch, it's heartening to see youngsters with brightly coloured hair alongside the brightly coloured trousers that might be a little more traditional.
The trouble we always have is cramming everything in - at any given moment there are likely five talks on at various stages and tents around the ground and a couple of living history performances/demonstrations, any one of which I'd quite happily sit and enjoy, so we decided to do two days this year, one focused on talks and the other to soak up everything else. Fortunately we rolled a critical success on the random British Weather Table avoiding torrential rain and dangerous heat in the bucolic Wiltshire setting, and have a splendid old time: swords were forged, pies baked, weapons, armour and uniforms demonstrated, artillery fired.
A live recording of Charlie Higson's Willy Willy Harry Stee podcast was particularly good, after enjoying a Best & Worst Monarchs discussion last year I'd worked through the whole monarchy with Charlie while walking the dog, I can highly recommend it if you're a bit hazy on chunks of British history.
With festivals being an expensive business they've also launched the Chalke History Hub, membership giving access to recorded talks and online events, which I might well sign up for to catch some of the talks we couldn't get to. Roll on 2025 and More History!
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| The festival ground |
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| Foreign Field foot tourney |
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| 25 pounders? I hardly know 'ers! |
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| Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling. |
