Knights in Battle wowed the large crowd at Dronfield Hall Barn with their spectacular unarmoured and armoured combat displays last weekend.

It was just one of the highlights for our very first Medieval Festival. Visitors were treated to plenty of wonderful stalls throughout the weekend, with the Golden Grail Tavern and the Hedgerow Preserving Company proving to be very popular.

Quirky Metals, Danum Slate and Elizabeth May Jewels all received plenty of attention, with big numbers of people admiring their products in the upstairs area of the barn.

Hawks of Steele proved to be a very popular attraction at the front of the barn. They brought along five magnificent birds, including a barn owl, tawny owl and eagle owl, plus a Harris’s hawk and a kestrel. There were regularly crowds of people waiting to handle one of these, and they provided fantastic photography opportunities.

The Pixie Tribe’s fantastic face painting proved popular with younger visitors, as did the children’s activities that were very kindly run by some of the Barn’s own volunteers.

Woodturner Robert Nicholson impressed onlookers with his skills, and Knight in Battle’s adjacent encampment had plenty of spectacular weapons and armour on display. It was their combat raucous combat demonstrations that really captured the crowd’s imagination. As well as their impressive weaponry skills, their interesting and engaging talks about archery and barber surgery were also a popular highlight.

We would like to extend our thanks to all our stallholders, performers and volunteers for making it a fantastic weekend. Thank you too to all who came – we hope you enjoyed it!

Below is just a small selection of photos from the weekend. More can be found on our Facebook page. Alternatively, view a short video of just some of the sights and sounds from the weekend: