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

Max Hastings compares Boris to Berlusconi #Brexit

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In his talk at Chalke Valley History Festival yesterday, Max Hastings gave us his thoughts on Brexit, comparing Boris Johnson to Silvio Berlusconi.

Max Hastings on Brexit from Chalke Valley History Trust on Vimeo.

FLYING FORTRESS NOT LANCASTER

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Very sadly, the Battle of Britain’s Memorial Flight Avro Lancaster, due to display over both days of the festival weekend, has been grounded indefinitely due to problems with its new fuel tanks. It’s a great shame, but we’ve been assured she will fly again and hopefully will still fill the skies of the Chalke Valley another year. We are, however, very fortunate to have the UK’s only airworthy Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber coming instead. This wonderful aircraft, the most iconic US bomber ever built and the mainstay of the Mighty Eighth Air Force that operated from here in England from 1942-1945, will be displaying on both Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July.

WWI Trench update

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Trench Aerial View.JPGAt this year’s festival we are very excited to have created a scale section of a First World War trench. Built by a team of experts and local volunteers, and using authentic methods and materials, official period manuals, as well as drawing upon the testimonies of those who built and fought in them, this will be as close a representation of what a First World War trench was like as is possible.

What has been created has been truly remarkable but due to necessarily strict rules concerning health and safety, we are not able to put either our living historians or the general public into the trench itself whilst at the same time remaining true to our aims of creating something truly authentic in terms of scale, proportions, and building techniques.

After some deliberation, we have decided to maintain the trench as intended. This makes it the most authentic section of trench in existence. What’s more, the public will still be able to see this unique representation of a front-line trench section from 1916. We have, however, had to change our original plan, although we are pleased to say we have found a solution that we think will still offer the public a truly new and exciting experience for this hundredth anniversary year of the Battles of the Somme and Verdun.

You will enter an above-ground trench built especially for the festival, where you will witness both French and British troops recreating a scenario from before and during the Battle of the Somme. From this immersive ‘in the moment’ experience, you will then continue down a ‘Sunken Road’ towards our recreated trench.

140416 trench buildThe scenario will be the summer of 1919; you will become one of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who flocked to France and Belgium to see where so manyn men had fought and died. The trench will be deserted, left as it had been in November 1918. A trail will take you around it and over foot bridges across the trench system. You will pass communication trenches, dug-outs, with the old trench signs still in place; you will pass shell holes, wire and no man’s land, giving you a unique opportunity to see what a trench of the Western Front looked like.

Also featured as part of the Trench Experience will be an encampment, period vehicles, and displays.