Announcing Chalke Walks
Today we are launching our new “Chalke Walks” which will be showcasing the fascinating history behind some of our historian’s favourite walks. Starting with our very own James Holland detailing his favourite walk around Broad Chalke and the surrounding area of the festival site.
We will be adding favourite walks from all over the country in the coming months, just in time for Spring and Summer!
The largest celebration of history in the UK is set to return this summer The Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival will run from 20-26th June 2022
- Back for 7 days this summer
- Expanded outdoor programme and entertainment
- World-class speaker line-up
- Hugely popular Festival for Schools also returns
Regarded as an important part of the summer festivals calendar, The Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival is set to return from 20-26th June this summer and promises to be more exciting and interactive than ever before. After a slightly shortened version in 2021, this year it will be back to seven days, packed full of historical entertainment, inspiring discussions, fun for all the family and featuring the very best historians in the land. Also back for 2022 is the Chalke Valley History Festival for Schools, which will run for two days and will offer a curriculum-based programme of events designed to encourage pupils to learn about history through a series of immersive activities and engaging talks.
Taking place at its stunning venue in Broad Chalke, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, this year’s festival will build on some of the hugely popular open-air events introduced last summer. Visitors will be able to listen to world-class speakers, and to watch eye-catching demonstrations given by knowledgeable living historians, whilst sitting on the surrounding hills savouring delicious historic fast food. Household names like acclaimed travel writer Colin Thubron will take to the stage in one of the big speaker tents, whilst children experience the thrill of driving the 1930s dodgems or riding on the big wheel at the vintage fairground.
A new Speaker’s Corner tent, where visitors of all ages can listen to shorter but highly informative talks in a more informal atmosphere, is being introduced for the first time this festival. Much-loved BBC broadcaster Justin Webb and former Home Secretary Alan Johnson will be discussing their experience of growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, while festival favourite David Owen will return to give a topical talk about two hundred years of British-Russian relations. There will be more living activities than ever before, highlights including a spectacular Restoration Pageant on both the Saturday and Sunday, traditional crafts, farming and the role of women during the Second World War.
There will be a live music programme every day. Revellers will be transported back to the 1920s with Trip For Biscuits, and other bands, in the bar area right at the heart of the festival where festival goers, and living historians in full costume, can relax together at the end of each day whilst watching the mid-summer sun go down against the historic backdrop of the stunning ancient Chalke Valley downland.
Alex Compiniani will be serving up some delicious Pompei street food during this year’s festival and Restoration Horse Racing will be one of the colourful new additions to the living history programme. Dan Snow’s ‘History Hit’ returns with a podcast and re-enactment each day for all the family, and a fascinating event with wartime RAF Mosquito veterans is bound to be one of the highlights of the programme this time. For those wishing to sleep under the stars, there will be camping and glamping facilities available, with a stunning view to wake up to over the festival site.
Festival Chair, James Holland, said: “There really is going to be an incredible range of history on offer this year. Our talks and discussions have traditionally been the backbone of the festival and, once again, we have among the very best historians around coming to speak. But more than ever we are offering a much wider programme that includes lots of live music, a reconstructed Iron Age round-house, vintage funfair and some truly stunning and original living history displays, from Restoration-era horse racing to a forensic reconstruction of how Richard III lost his life at Bosworth. There will be so much on offer for children and families visiting together and I really do think this is our very best programme ever.”
The amazing line-up of speakers already confirmed at this year’s Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival includes Helena Merriman sharing the incredible story of Tunnel 29, a true story of an extraordinary escape beneath the Berlin Wall in 1962, the bestselling historian Andrew Roberts presenting his most recent book about George III, the BBC World Service’s Lipika Pelham discussing an alternative history of identity from the Middle Ages to the present day, Simon Jenkins on Europe’s 100 best cathedrals, and Sarah Churchwell talking about the history and legacy of the epic novel Gone with the Wind.
The full programme, and more detailed information about what’s in store this year, will be unveiled shortly. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday 3rd May.
80 fascinating talks, given by incredible historians and entitled #ChalkeTalk, can now be heard on the Chalke Valley History Festival podcast. These talks have been taken from over ten years of festival appearances.
For further information, please contact Alex Hippisley-Cox on mobile 07921 127077 or email her at alex@ahipcoxpr.co.uk
The Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival will take place at Church Bottom,
Broad Chalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP5 5DP.
2021 Roadmap
We are really thrilled to be able to announce our intention to hold the history festival this year in June.
It will be a slightly shortened version, running from the afternoon of Wednesday 23rd to the evening of Sunday 27th June. As usual, it will be held at our beautiful venue in Broad Chalke, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. We are also delighted that it will be one of the first big ‘live’ events of the summer, starting just two days after the proposed lifting of Covid restrictions on 21st June.
After much consultation with the relevant authorities and key stakeholders, the five-day event – only made possible after receiving a generous grant from the Arts Council Culture Recovery Fund – will take place in accordance with Government guidelines, with strict health and safety regulations in place where necessary.
Due to government guidelines, there will be restrictions on the number of tickets for sale this year. We would strongly advise you to book tickets early to avoid disappointment.
Our plan is to focus events around two big marquees – with socially distanced seating – and a wider, entirely outdoor programme that will include two new amphitheatre-style stages that will host talks and panels as well as the large tents.
TALKS
The festival will offer its usual amazing line-up of talks, topical debates, living history and activities for children, with eminent historians and household names all bringing history to life. Among those already confirmed are Max Hastings, Margaret MacMillan, Tracy Borman, Antony Beevor, Rana Mitter, Neil Oliver, Rowan Williams, Vince Cable, Michael Wood and Antonia Fraser.
Margaret Thatcher’s biographer, Charles Moore, will conduct a ‘Whodunnit’ on the toppling of the Iron Lady while our foremost playwright, Sir Tom Stoppard, will be grilled by his biographer, Hermione Lee.
Charles Spencer examines Norman treachery while Lady Anne Glenconner reflects on life as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret plus the day she accompanied the new Queen up the aisle of Westminster Abbey for the Coronation.
OUTDOOR PROGRAMME
Our Outdoor Programme will include an extensive living history programme, which will swell spectacularly at the weekend. Scarlet-tunics will rub shoulders with Iron Age Celts, Roman, medieval longbow-men and Tudor households. There will be duelling, 16th century cookery, brewing, the exoticism of the spice trade and demonstrations of life and medical care in both world wars.
There will also be later evening historical storytelling around crackling fires, as well as more performance-related events. The stunning valley location will offer a midsummer return to a spectacular celebration of history with all the accompanying array of food, drink, music and camping that are normal features of the June festival.
“It’s just going to have that wonderful jamboree party feel with tents and flags and archery and lots of living history. Think of it as a return to the sunlit uplands.”
James Holland, Chairman
We all hope you will be as excited about the festival as we are. It will be a fabulous chance for families to go out, have fun, meet friends across the spacious layout of the site and to soak up some culture in a safe environment. It goes without saying that the safety of all those attending will be our upmost priority.
FESTIVAL FOR SCHOOLS
There will not be a physical Festival for Schools this year. Instead, the festival will be creating a wealth of specifically generated content ready for the start of the academic year in September. This will include filming curriculum-based talks from leading academics and historians relevant for students in Years 10 and 12, and also delivering a mass of filmed material for Years 6, 7, and 8. In this way the festival will provide a long-term, free digital resource in line with the aims of the Chalke Valley History Trust.
“The Chalke Valley History Festival is one of the jewels in the crown of the area’s cultural life, It is wonderful news that it can proceed this year. It will be a huge boost to the morale of both history buffs and the many local businesses, which supply and support the festival.”
John Glen, MP for Salisbury
The full programme, and more detailed information about what’s in store this year, will be unveiled soon.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Wednesday 19th May and will be released two days earlier on the 17th May to the Friends membership.
