History sites target Easter trade

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Battles in castles will be re-enacted over the Easter weekend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the body which helps protect Welsh historic sites.

Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's heritage service, launches its programme of events to mark the milestone later.

It includes staging mock battles and military displays at some of Wales' most famous heritage locations.

Conwy, Caerphilly and Caernarfon castles are among those being used.

Cadw is the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment division. Cadw is a Welsh word which means 'to keep'.

Its sites include Caerphilly Castle, Castell Coch and Tintern Abbey in the south as well as Caernarfon and Harlech Castles and Plas Mawr Elizabethan Townhouse, Conwy, in the north.

The body marks its silver anniversary in October this year. The Easter weekend festival of "knight fights" and other history-based events is part of the run up to the celebrations.

The public will be able to see knights fighting, Mediaeval re-enactments and sample a taste of life in the Elizabethan secret service.

Caerphilly Castle will be a castle under siege on Sunday and Monday, from 1100 BST to 1600 BST with displays by the Bowmen of the Rose and the Company of Chivalry re-enactment society.

Medieval action is being staged at a number of Cadw sites

People will be able to witness the firing of the siege engines as arrows are fired at the castle, then visit the living history encampment and hear the stories of those living through the siege.

Escafeld Medieval Society will entertain at Caernarfon Castle in Gwynedd, recreating 13th century military life on Sunday and Monday, from 1100 BST until 1600 BST, where they will stage a medieval foot tournament and demonstrate authentic weaponry and swordsmanship skills.

Weaponry skills will also be on display at Harlech Castle in Gwynedd on Sunday and Monday, from 1100 BST until 1600 BST, where demonstrations of hunting with falcons and other birds of prey will be presented by the Ardudwy Knights.

And at Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire, visitors will be able to watch a display of weaponry and swordsmanship during the Anglo-Welsh wars of the 13th and 14th Centuries. The event will be open on Sunday and Monday from 1100 BST until 1600 BST.

Members of the public will be to support their chosen knight as he fights for supremacy at Conwy Castle on Saturday, at Rhuddlan Castle, Denbighshire, on Sunday and Denbigh Castle on Monday, from 1130 BST until 1630 BST.

Meanwhile, visitors to Plas Mawr, Conwy on Sunday and Monday will be able to sample the mysteries of codes and cyphers that were part of espionage practised by Elizabethan I's spymaster, Francis Walsingham.