Whittington Castle rolls back the years
Up to 1,000 visitors were greeted by the sounds of gunfire when Whittington Castle turned back the clock for a multi-period history event.
The castle, near Oswestry, hosted 10 groups of re-enactors for a full two days of battle drills and living history.
Castle manager Sue Ellis said she was delighted with the turnout of both performers and visitors.
"The castle looked fantastic with all the different groups. We had all the Napoleonic men in the moat and the Home Guard, and a medieval campsite in the back field.
"We had 10 groups here, which is the most we've ever had before.
"Lots of people were coming in and the weather was gorgeous. We had up to about 500 people per day, and we just about coped with the car parking."
During each day different groups took it in turns to provide demonstrations in the arena, culminating in a 'dressing the knight through the ages' display which saw most of the re-enactors take part.
"There were lots of children coming in, and they particularly liked the throwing the sponges event," Mrs Ellis said.
"We had some people in the stocks and we had people come up and throw wet sponges at them. In this weather I don't think they minded too much though."
Among the groups was the Kynges Souldiers (BOTH CORR), based in Oswestry, which showed off some of the weapons used by soldiers in the 14th century.
Justin Soper, from the group, said: "We did firing demonstrations of what was the first individual black powder gun that soldiers used. We had some ex-servicemen come up to us to see what we've been doing and they've been amazed that someone would fire something so basic."
As well as the fighters were other demonstrators showing historic leather working, drop spinning and falconry.
The Owl Man, David Humphreys, and his wife Sharon, who are both from Oswestry, bought along three birds for the weekend - Barney the barn owl, Bumble the tawny owl and Bud the European eagle owl.
"We always have a lot of interest when we bring the birds out and we always enjoy coming to Whittington," Mr Humphreys said.
"We took Barney and Bumble out on the grand parade with us, but not Bud because he's too heavy to carry for any length of time. People love to meet the birds."
