HISTORY will be coming to life at a Bromsgrove open air museum this weekend.

Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings in Redditch Road, Stoke Heath, is holding an English Civil War Weekend tomorrow, August 16, and Sunday, August 17.

At the event cavalier and roundhead re-enactors from the English Civil War Society will be recreating scenes from one of the most turbulent periods in England’s history.

In the museum's grounds there will be living history camps, including the chance for visitors to chat to Parliamentarian and Royalist soldiers and local residents selling their wares on market day.

There will be drills at 11am each day, skirmishes at 2pm and cooking demonstrations over an open fire and bread baking in an outside oven.

Visitors can also meet the innkeeper, make your own gifts and coins, or try writing with a quill pen. Avoncroft’s medieval Town House - once owned by a cloth dyer in the 16th century - will be the setting for demonstrations of this historic skill and displays of painted wall cloths decorated with period designs using authentic pigments such as woad.

Younger visitors will be able to join in the drills as the soldiers prepare for battle, try on armour, and examine the weapons used.

There is also a trail around the museum, with the opportunity to solve clues by talking to historic characters.

Visitors will be able to see firsthand some of the instruments of punishment during the 17th century, including the chance to try out the pillory and stocks.

For more details, of for more information on forthcoming events at the museum, visit avoncroft.org.uk/whats-on/events-programme.