Sights and sounds of a Napoleonic siege

The Napoleonic re-enactment and siege has been held at Whittington Castle since 2016 and is thought to be the only one in the UK that features scaling ropes and ladders. This year the event, which took place over Saturday and Sunday, was raising money for additional CCTV at the castle – which has been targeted by vandals twice in recent months.

Last year, obscene graffiti was sprayed onto the historic stonework and just last week a swan’s nest was destroyed. Huw Davies, who takes part every year, said: “Saturday was a bit quiet because of the bad weather but thankfully the weather was better on Sunday and a lot of people came out to see it. Hopefully it raised a lot of money for the CCTV to protect the castle and its swans in the future.”

There was also a raffle this year and the winner was given the honour of firing the cannon to mark the start of the re-enactment. Each year the weekend takes a backdrop of a time in history. This year the Siege of Almeida in Portugal set the scene for the battle.

A large French force, numbering some 16,000 men with 100 guns under the command of Marshal Ney, encircled the fortress, a garrison of 5,000 Portuguese and British soldiers.

Each day the re-enactment began with reveille at 7am, an officer meeting at 9am, drills at 10.15am and 11am, firing displays at 11.30am and noon, with the battle getting underway at 3pm.

More than 100 re-enactors travelled from all over the country to take part.

So far the community has raised more than £800 towards the extra CCTV fund.

The swan eggs were destroyed on Wednesday night after a brick was dropped on them. Just one of six eggs survived but it appears the parents have now abandoned the nest.