Once again, our local Viking re-enactment group, Jotunns Wrath, will be establishing a Living History village in Hunsbury Hill Country Park. This time on Sat. 9th & Sun. 10th August.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day there will be a programme of re-enactments ~ mock battles, skirmishes, ambushes and other Living History demonstrations. Those of you who enjoyed this last year will know how much fun these were ~especially for the children who were given the opportunity to thump the living daylights out of their parents ! Several times !
In the Living History village, Jotunns Wrath will be displaying artefacts, food & cooking, weapons and armour of the period and also crafted wares, some of which will be for sale.
They will have a 22 ft. Viking ship with them (but not on water), as well as answering questions and chatting about the Viking way of life and the places and times in which they lived.
AND, NEW FOR 2025, they will (hopefully) be bringing a TREBUCHET. That should be loads of fun watching that work.
Hunsbury Iron Age Hillfort was occupied for probably 500 years, from about 500 BC to just before the time of the Romans. Although it was abandoned before the Romans invaded in 43AD, the Anglo-Saxon pottery that has been found there suggests that the site was re-occupied, or at least visited, during the mediaeval ‘Dark Ages’ (450 – 1066 AD) after the Romans left, when the Vikings and Saxons were battling for land around Northampton.
The reason that this might possibly be the last event we can organise in West Hunsbury parks is because WNC, who own the park lands, have recently (April 2025) decided to introduce a Use of Land Policy for their parks with some draconian charges for event organisers which we simply cannot afford. We are only able to proceed with this Vikings event because we were able to negotiate a one-off deal as we had registered the event and started organising it before the Policy was introduced.
So please do come along and enjoy what will probably be the last appearance of the Vikings in West Hunsbury parks. Let’s make the most of it while we can.