The last couple of weeks have seen a variety of events, particularly during half-term when Hangleton Library put on an event on the Thursday as part of the festival, making a castle collage in an activity that was so popular that places were filled a couple of days in advance! Meanwhile, on Friday there was the Festival organised Medieval Workshop, where children of all ages took part in making shields and breastplates, playing a ball game based on a medieval game, and learning (or attempting to learn!) a medieval dance! That event involved children from ages 2 to teens taking part, and they all seemed to be having a great time!

Last weekend we had two events in local parks, with the recently formed Friends of Hangleton Park group having a fun-day on the Saturday, with face-painting, crafts, raffle, bouncy castle and a visit from the fire service, which the children really enjoyed – the combination of hoses and hot weather was a definite winner!

Then on Sunday, Friends of Knoll Park had an event involving crafts, conservation activities and more, which was a fun morning, although slightly more low key than Hangleton Park as it is not long since the group had the responsibility of organising the opening events for not only Knoll Park’s new play-park, but also the new play-park at Greenleas, so the volunteers have not had much of a break between events! Caroline Shears, secretary of the Friends of Knoll Park Group tells me they are already talking about their next event, so we look forward to news on that!

STILL TO COME – is of course the big one, Hangleton and Knoll Medieval Festival, the 7th Hangleton and Knoll Medieval festival in fact, so I think we can safely call it an annual event now! This fun packed weekend, featuring battle re-enactments, living history demonstrations, stalls, activities, bouncy castle, beer tent and more, takes place this weekend (12th and 13th of June). At 11am on the 12th is the now traditional children’s parade, and all children are welcome to dress in the knight/princess costumes and join in! The parade, featuring costumed re-enactors on horseback, leaves the Grenadier Pub at 12pm and finishes at Greenleas Park for the official opening of the Medieval Festival.

Finally tonight (Friday 11th) there is a talk about the local history of Hangleton, given by local historian Trevor Povey, at St Richard’s Community Centre, Egmont Road, from 7.30pm. Last year’s talk was very well received by those who attended, so he is back by popular demand!