Family fun sessions in the county are set to get up people's noses as staff from Herefordshire Council's Heritage Services recreate the smells of the past.

The cocktail of heady whiffs that filled the streets of Hereford and its market towns 400 years ago will be explored as part of "Smelly Pigs".

A surgeon from Tudor times will also be on hand during a session at Hereford's Old House, in High Town, to explain some of the diseases which plagued the streets at the time.

The free family fun sessions will be held at on August 3 at the Market House Heritage Centre, Ross-on-Wye; on August 9 at Ledbury Heritage Centre; on August 16 at Bromyard Heritage Centre and at The Old House, Hereford, on August 18. All the sessions will be held between 10am-2pm.

"Four hundred years ago, our sensitive noses would have been offended by the cocktail of heady whiffs in our streets," said Lara Latcham, visitor services officer.

"Visitors will be able to meet a Tudor surgeon who will be studying urine to diagnose illnesses and using herbs to cure them.

"He will also have his surgeon's tools with him to talk us through Tudor surgery.

"There'll be a craft activity for younger visitors to make a pig-shaped pouch of herbs to ward off disease and bad odours and a smell trail to help us understand what life was like 400 years ago."

For details, call Heritage Services on 01432 260692.