Annual Battle of Evesham festival underway to celebrate battle's 760th anniversary
The battle took place in 1265 with the first annual festival being launched in 2018 and running ever since
A festival celebrating the 760th anniversary of the Battle of Evesham is set to continue in the town this weekend.
The event, which has been held annually since 2018 and missed a year along the way due to the Covid pandemic, got underway yesterday and aims to re-create and give a glimpse into what it would've been like back in the 13th century.
Records state the battle was fought on the 4th August 1265 between a royal army led by Prince Edward who was representing his father King Henry III and Simon de Montfort who was in charge of an army of rebels.
Prince Edward wanted to free the King who had been captured by Montfort a year earlier like himself at the Battle of Lewes.
Upon capture of the King, Montfort effectively governed the country in the name of the "uncrowned King of England" but after Edward managed to escape, the battle took place which led to the death of Montfort and control returning to Henry III.
Event director Mick Hurst says he moved to the area at the start of the 21st century which is when he came across the battle's history.
"I realised what he had was a fantastic story which no-one had started to tell properly," he said.
"So in 2018 myself and some colleagues got together and put on the first annual Battle of Evesham festival and that first one attracted about 10,000 members of the public, so we thought we’ve got something of interest here and its just grown and grown each year.
"We estimated that last year we potentially had 40,000 people come but this year we could see that rise to fifty to sixty thousand over the three days."
As well as a camp showing demonstrations of how things like cookery, weapons and medicine would've been, the main battle re-enactment also takes place over Saturday and Sunday.
Things get underway with the Battle of Evesham grand parade taking place today (Saturday 2 August), where mounted knights in full armour will work their way through the town.
Mr Hurst says they spend the full year planning the event out and it brings in people from all over the world.
"The re-enactors travel from all across Europe, I think the furthest this year is actually coming from Bulgaria," he said.
"We now attract up to 1,000 re-enactors and they just love performing and showing off their hobby to the visitors that come along.
"Its bringing people into Evesham from around the world from places like America, Australia and China and we’ll be expecting people from these countries to visit again this time around."
The medieval festival is based in the town's Crown Meadow park area across the three days with the grand parade setting off from St Lawrence's Church.