We are thrilled to announced that not only will we have a Miles Messenger flying into the  Festival and becoming an exhibit throughout, we will also be visited by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Hurricane on the Saturday, and the Dakota on the Sunday.  The Messenger is owned by Paul Beaver, who has been instrumental in organising the Air Show and securing many of the wonderful aircraft on show.  He plans to fly into the field before the Festival and for his aircraft to then become an exhibit amongst a number of  Second World War vehicles.

The Miles Messenger was used as Field Marshal Montgomery’s personal mount throughout much of his time as Eighth Army and then 21st Army Group Commander – a light aircraft that could land almost anywhere, and which was ideal for ferrying him to both meetings and around the battlefield.

The BBMF Hurricane will be performing a flypast of the Festival at lunchtime on Saturday 29th June, while the Dakota will appear on the Sunday.

 

 

We’re fortunate to have a brilliant artist and designer working with us to produce lots of exciting, witty, and highly original artwork.  Johnny Bull has been with us since the outset and his unique style has already become a feature of the History Festival.  We’ve already posted most of his new work up on the online programme, but here is a look at the artwork we’re using for our printed programme.

We are delighted to announce that Joanna Lumley has agreed to be one of the judges of the Chalke Valley History Prize 2013.

Good news – Neil Oliver, one of our most popular TV historians, has confirmed that he’ll be joining us at the 2013 Festival.  The presenter of Coast, Ancient Britain, and most recently, The Vikings, Neil is an inspirational and hugely passionate historian and archaeologist, so it will be wonderful to have him with us.  He’ll be talking about the Vikings on the Saturday of the Festival, and in honour of his talk, we’ll also be having a fair few Viking re-enactors on site as well.

 

 

We’ve asked one of our patrons, Dr Peter Caddick-Adams, to choose his Greatest Briton.

From our list of thirty, who would you would like to see in the Top Five debated at this year’s Festival?

Everybody has heard of William the Conqueror, though few recall he was known before the Conquest as William the Bastard. I think William the lucky bastard is probably more correct. He was fortunate to win at Hastings against Harold’s better but tired army, which had just marched all the way from Yorkshire. William’s greater impact was cultural, dynastic, and permanent: he gave us stone hearths, the Domesday Book, and a new architecture, and imported his Norman French which in time meshed with Anglo-Saxon. Honest Oliver Cromwell, soldier and statesman, kept Civil War England from many of the extremes which often accompany revolutions, though was no friend to Irish Catholics. With him originated the idea that the army belongs to Parliament, not to the monarch, why is why our land defence force remains the British – not the Royal – Army. Horatio Nelson spectacularly defeated the combined threat of Spain and France at Trafalgar in 1805, removing the threat of invasion by sea, whilst on land Wellington fought the French with a skill unmatched by any contemporary, other than Napoleon, whom he out-generalled at Waterloo. Winston Churchill needs no introduction, other than a reminder of his polymath achievements, leading his nation in war and peace, winning a Nobel Prize for literature, while coping – periodically – with the “black dog” of severe depression. These five were great men, who shaped our nation and made us who we are.

An easy choice?

No; greatness comes in all forms; rather than advancing technology or warming our souls, these five gave us something less tangible and often taken for granted – our security.

And who do you think should get the crown?

I’m tempted to say Churchill, but I’m going to say Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, an outstanding soldier, and a Prime Minister.

What makes him stand above all the others?

Were it not for Wellington and his Peninsular campaign, and then Waterloo, Europe would have been united under a French dictatorship; no room for the rise of a unified Germany, or two world wars – no Kaiser, no Hitler, no need for Mr Winston Churchill.

Did he have any major flaws?

Whilst Wellington remained calm on the battlefield and rarely showed emotion, he treated his wife, Kitty Packenham, abominably, largely ignoring her; psychologically, he remained overawed by Napoleon, to the extent of living in the latter’s house in Paris and bedding his mistresses.

What was his greatest achievement?

Waterloo, the outcome of which remained on a knife-edge for several hours, will remain for ever his defining achievement.