New Festival Site – Plans For A Smooth Traffic Management System

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This year, Chalke Valley History Festival will run from the 26th June to 2nd July at a new site, Church Bottom in Broad Chalke. It is an intimate spot, lying amidst ancient chalk pasture well away from the village and so noise from the festival should not greatly impact villagers.

As the Festival is new to the village, we are keen to cause as little disruption to the village as possible and with this in mind, we are working towards having a traffic management system in place which will help traffic flow smoothly and enter the festival site easily.  We are working closely with Wiltshire Council to achieve this.

The Council have suggested that we apply for a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order, so that GFI Event Services can implement a ‘one way route’ during busy periods, in particular over the weekend.

Our proposed route in for traffic coming into the village from Salisbury is to enter Broad Chalke via Long Bridge, past the school.  We are applying for a oneway road system during that week. Traffic exiting from the school will be directed to leave via Broad Chalke and on The Causeway. Exiting traffic from the Festival site will be directed also via The Causeway. There is no intention to use Knighton Road or Bull Lane and we have been advised to have the road closed to non-residents but obviously residents and friends/family of those residents will have full access.

Throughout the Festival week, there will be AA signs in place giving detailed information so that the system is clear to both village and non-village traffic. All Festival car parking will be in Church Bottom and there will be no parking in Bury Orchard.

With regards our air displays, this year we have another amazing line-up of wonderful historic war birds for the Festival weekend. All flying will take place over agricultural land and in accordance with the guidelines set down by the Civil Aviation Authority. The flight path is not over any houses in Newtown.

Finally, we are offering free weekend entrance tickets for Broad Chalke residents.  If you would like to take this offer up, please call the Box Office on 01722 781133 from 26th April.

Please do also contact us if you have any questions about these plans – you can also leave feedback here.

The Festival Team

New site for 2017

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Highlights of Knight’s Cross Winner, Günter Halm’s talk at CVHF

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Günter Halm, a veteran of the Second World War, fought under Rommel in the Deutsches Afrikakorps, won the Knight’s Cross for his part in the First Battle of Alamein in July 1942 and later served in Normandy. In his talk at Chalke Valley History Festival on Saturday, 2nd July, he discussed his wartime memories in what was a truly fascinating morning.

CVHF 2016: Günter Halm Highlights from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

The Eyes of History

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A beautifully shot video of Living History at Chalke Valley History Festival..by Henry Lynch, Bournemouth University

CVHF: Little Things Part 2 from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

Parking and site accessibility update

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We apologise for the delay in getting to our Festival carpark today. This is due to the mud created by recent bad weather. We are working as quickly as we can to get you all in safely.

All talks are being delayed by 15 minutes and anyone missing a talk will be offered tickets to alternative talks.

Please remember to wear appropriate footwear (wellies or sturdy walking boots!)

 

CVHF Air Show Update From Paul Beaver

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Paul Beaver talks about what to expect at our Air Show this year..

Paul Beaver Air show promo from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

Somme Service, Chalke Valley History Festival

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Our ‪#‎Somme100‬ service this morning was led by Rt Revd. Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury at our ‪#‎WW1‬ trench. Broad Chalke Primary School sang beautifully and there were readings by Lieutenant-Colonel John Wakelin, Alex Langlands and Bee James.

somme from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Tom Booth

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Dr Tom Booth from the Natural History Museum talks to us about the extraordinary discovery of a mummy found locally in Sixpenny Handley.

Tom Booth – Natural History Museum Mummy from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

UPDATE ON MUDDY CONDITIONS & SITE ACCESSIBILITY AT THE FESTIVAL

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We have had a record amount of rainfall in the last month and unfortunately the site has become quite muddy. CVHF is taking action to improve both the car park accessibility and the event areas:

EVENT ARENA
1. We are putting down additional matting at the main entrance and the entrances to the talk tents
2. We are purchasing significant tonnages of woodchip to place at points of significant footfall

CAR PARK
1. The tracking in our field is being kept clean and covered in sand to improve traction
2. We are utilising a rota system for entry and exit traffic routes to use less muddy parts of the field
3. We are increasing the numbers of car park attendants
4. We have multiple tractors on site to ensure cars can be moved at all times if they get into difficulty
5. We are deploying our additional car park over the weekend which is dry and unused so far

We are laying on additional assistance for the public
1. People with mobility requirements are able to use mobility scooters throughout the site and we are supplying a quantity of scooters for the public
2. We are providing several drivers in the car park to ferry infirm people from their cars to the event arena
3. All of our volunteers and staff will be assisting the public to ensure they can fully enjoy the festival

All customers should ask for assistance at any time from any the volunteers and staff

The last two days have seen a significant improvement as the drier conditions and sun and wind have resulted in the fields becoming less muddy and we expect further natural drying.

CVHF Team