MICHAEL WOOD TO CHAMPION ALFRED THE GREAT AND IAN HISLOP SHAKESPEARE AT THE GREATEST BRITON DEBATE!
BUY YOUR TICKET FOR THE DEBATE HERE 

The Chalke Valley History Festival is Britain’s biggest festival devoted entirely to history.

This is our second Festival and we are much bigger this year with over fifty events and an extraordinary array of speakers. Joining us are some of this country’s most popular and influential historians who are shaping our understanding of the past and setting the context for understanding the future.

We have a new venue: a 22-acre field set amongst the gentle downs of the Chalke Valley, surely one of the most beautiful landscapes in Britain. It will allow us to have two tents rather than one and include a living history arena where the past can be brought to life by experts who will demonstrate how people dressed, fought and lived in former times.

We’re also launching the inaugural Chalke Valley History Prize, a historical writing competition for budding young authors we are delighted that one of the world’s biggest-selling authors, Michael Morpurgo, will be leading the judges.  In addition to that, in the run-up to the Festival, we are inviting people to vote for who they think is the Greatest Briton.  The long-list has been chosen by us and our Patrons and we hope it will lead to some lively discussion.

Finally, we are also setting up the Chalke Valley History Trust, into which any profits from the festival will flow. We want to improve the education of history in this country so that children reach adulthood with a proper sense of the past so as to make better sense of their future. This is something we believe in passionately.

We really hope you enjoy this year’s festival. Six glorious summer days in lovely Wiltshire dedicated to the past.

James Heneage & James Holland, Joint Chairs

THE COMMITTEE
George Ashe
Abigail Ashton-Johnson
Hannah Bell
Peter Bell
Pam Clover
Phil Ewen
Rachel Holland
Penny Marland
Jane Pleydell-Bouverie
Katie Whitmore