Back for its third year, and bigger than ever, the Harvington History Festival 2025 promises five days of fascinating talks, lively discussions, and captivating performances covering everything from Tudor spy rings and Elizabethan fashion, to royal queer history and mudlarking.
Running from Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 July 2025 at Harvington Hall, a historic moated Worcestershire Elizabethan manor house, the festival focuses on the Tudor and early Stuart periods with a top line-up of TV broadcasters, leading historians and acclaimed authors ready to share their unique insight, and explode the myths that surround our past.
Historic Royal Palaces’ Chief Historian Dr Tracy Borman OBE (Sat) unlocks the hidden meanings within one of the most famous portraits of the Renaissance era, Hans Holbein’s celebrated The Ambassadors, while everyday life specialist, The Victorian Farm and Inside The Factory‘s Ruth Goodman (Sat), explores Elizabethan fashion trends.
Elsewhere, the UK’s biggest selling female historian, Alison Weir (Thu), looks at the powerful relationships within the life of Cardinal Wolsey; Times Book of the Year 2022 author Gareth Russell (Fri) reveals a little known chapter in royal (and queer) history; Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman (Fri) offer unique insights into Elizabethan espionage; and Lara Maiklem recounts mudlarking along the River Thames, where she’s uncovered such items as medieval pilgrim badges, Tudor shoes and Georgian wig curlers!
Meanwhile, having spent 36 hours in one of the Hall’s many cramped Priest Holes (for charity), Harvington Hall Manager Phil Downing (Sun) discusses their purpose, and reflects on the psychological affects of confinement, and costumed historian Lesley Smith (Sun) takes to the stage as The Spanish Tudor Queen, Katherine of Aragon.
Other sessions find experts explore women’s untold influence on the War Of The Roses (Annie Garthwaite), the birth of the Tudor dynasty (Nathen Amin), folklore’s underlying truths (James Wright), Christianity’s relationship with sex (Diarmaid MacCulloch), and the creation of Shakespeare’s ‘folio’ (Chris Laoutaris).
There’s also a panel discussion digging into 1605’s infamous Gunpowder Plot (Fri), an act of terrorism with a strong connection to the county, and also a special concert featuring acclaimed vocal ensemble Apollo5 (Fri) which explores the music and poetry of displaced and persecuted authors – from Tudor musician William Byrd to contemporary Ukrainian composers currently writing in exile.
As Official Podcaster, British History Tours‘ Philippa Brewell, will also be chatting to learned guests and delving behind the scenes, while Antiques Roadshow‘s Will Farmer and his team from Fieldings Auctioneers will be offering free valuations to attendees on small items.
Phil Downing, said: “The growing success of our History Festival reconfirms Harvington Hall’s often untold, yet significant, role in the history of our country.
“Attracting visitors from across the UK, it is a great opportunity to not only discover the Hall’s unique charm, but also find out more about Britain’s rich and layered history from some incredible guests.”
Hidden deep in the Worcestershire countryside – between Kidderminster and Bromsgrove, and just a short drive from Birmingham – the Grade I listed Harvington Hall is a unique Elizabethan moated manor. Reflecting an era of great religious persecution and upheaval, the manor is home to the finest collection of priest hides (also known as priest holes) in the country, with seven in total. It also houses a number of impressive Tudor wall paintings.
Following a period of decay, the Hall was gifted to the Archdiocese of Birmingham in 1923. Fully restored, it’s now open to the public all year round.
Harvington History Festival: Exploding The Myths! (Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 July 2025) is sponsored by Talbots Solicitors and Fieldings Auctioneers. For more information, and tickets, which start from £12, see: www.harvingtonhall.co.uk
LISTINGS
Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 July 2025
Harvington History Festival 2025: Exploding the Myths!
Harvington Hall, Harvington Hall Lane, Harvington, Kidderminster, Worcestershire DY10 4LR
www.harvingtonhall.co.uk
Sponsored by Talbots Solicitors and Fieldings Auctioneers.
Tickets from £12.
Please note a festival ticket doesn’t include entry to the Hall.
www.harvingtonhall.co.uk/history-festival
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DAY 1: WEDNESDAY 23 JULY 2025
Helen Castor – The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
(11.00am, £12)
Helen Castor (She-Wolves) explores one of the strangest and most fateful relationships in English history. It’s a story about power, and masculinity in crisis, and a nation brought to the brink of catastrophe – and, at its heart, two men whose lives were played out in extraordinary parallel, to devastating effect.
Annie Garthwaite – Mothers-in-War: Meet the Women of the Wars of the Roses
(1.30pm, £12)
Accounts of the Wars of the Roses are dominated by men – kings and kingmakers, traitors and tyrants. But maybe it was the women calling the shots? In conversation with historian Nicola Tallis, Annie reveals how the wars were shaped by powerful mothers, driving the action and risking their lives to secure the throne for their sons.
Nathen Amin – Henry and Elizabeth: The Marriage That made The Tudors
(4pm, £12)
Historian and author Nathen Amin takes a closer look at Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII and founders of the mightiest dynasty that ruled this kingdom. It is a tale of war, love, and grief, with a legacy we still feel today.
James Wright – Historic Building Mythbusting:Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology
(6.30pm, £12)
Buildings archaeologist James discusses the development of the folklore and investigates the underlying truths. Sometimes the realities hiding behind the stories are even more interesting, romantic, and exciting than the myths …
DAY 2: THURSDAY 24 JULY 2025
Diarmaid MacCulloch – Christianity And Sex: What Can History Tell Us?
(11am, £12)
Religion and sex are inextricably tangled in politics across our contemporary world, often in toxic ways, and the long history of that tangle in the Christian world has been fatally simplified and misunderstood.
Joanne Paul – Thomas More: Man, Myth and Mystery
(1.30pm, £12)
Saintly scholar, zealous persecutor, ambitious statesman – who was the ‘real’ Thomas More? Neither the hero of Man For All Seasons nor the villain of Wolf Hall, this talk recovers the living, breathing, complex historical individual who walked London’s streets, wrote Utopia, and daringly spoke truth to Henry VIII.
Nicola Tallis – Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey
(4pm, £12)
Remembered as one of history’s tragic victims, Dr Nicola Tallis reveals the human and emotional story of Lady Jane Grey, uncovering a young woman who saw herself as an advocate of Protestantism, and ultimately became a martyr for her faith.
Alison Weir – Cardinal Wolsey: Love and Power
(6.30pm, £12)
The extraordinary story of Wolsey the man, his incredible rise to power and his tragic fall. Alison Weir delves beyond the splendour and political machinations of the Tudor court to reveal the secrets of Wolsey’s private life and the woman he loved devotedly
DAY 3: FRIDAY 25 JULY 2025
Gareth Russell – Queen James and a Love Affair that Killed
(11am, £12)
In 1607, a Scottish knight fell off his horse in front of King James, who rushed to see if he was alright. What followed was a ten-year love affair that ended in suspected murder and one of the greatest scandals of the 17th century.
Nadine Akkerman & Pete Langman – Spycraft: Revealing the Early Modern Q
(1.30pm, £12)
Early modern Europe was a hotbed of espionage: spies, spy-catchers, and conspirators pitted their wits against each other in deadly games of hide and seek – only those who mastered the latest techniques would survive.
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Myths
(4pm, £22)
Panel discussion chaired by festival host Jo Durrant. Delve into the shadowy world of the Gunpowder Plot with four leading historians: Professor Nadine Akkerman, Dr Pete Langman, Dr Elizabeth Norton, and Professor Stephen Alford. What drove a group of men to plan an act of mass murder by attempting to blow up Parliament on 5th November 1605?
Festival Concert – Apollo5: Haven
(6.30pm, £25, St. Mary’s Church)
A beautiful programme of music both intimate and emotive taken from Apollo5’s latest album. It reflects music’s capacity to bring comfort, refuge and sanctuary. Centred around William Byrd’s 5-part mass (a masterpiece written in secret as a Catholic during Elizabethan persecution)
DAY 4: SATURDAY 26 JULY 2025
Lara Maiklem – Mudlarking: Uncovering History’s Secrets
(11am, £12)
For over two decades Lara has mudlarked; scouring the banks of the Thames to find objects – lost or discarded- that tell the greatest stories from medieval pilgrim badges to Tudor shoes and Georgian wig curlers.
Tracy Borman – Holbein and the year that changed Tudor England
(1.30pm, £20)
The year 1533 changed everything for Henry VIII and his kingdom. By the end, England had a new queen, Anne Boleyn, a new church and a new royal heir, the future Elizabeth I. This turbulent year was captured forever by Hans Holbein The Younger, the most famous court painter of the age.
Chris Laoutaris – Shakespeare, the Making of a Legend: The Personalities who Saved the Bard’s Legacy
(4pm, £12)
In 1623 thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays were published in one astonishing ‘folio’. Who created this extraordinary tribute and why? And how did they ‘save’ Shakespeare’s legacy in the process?
Ruth Goodman – The Changing Shape Of Elizabethan Fashion: Design And Style In Every Walk Of Life
(6.30pm, £12)
Discover the evolution of Tudor fashion, extending far beyond clothing to include beard styles, furniture, home decoration, perfumes, dance, and entertainment.
DAY 5: SUNDAY 27 JULY 2025
Phil Downing – Hiding in History: Locked Inside A Priest Hide For 36hrs
(1.30pm, £12)
Join Harvington Hall Manager Phil Downing for a fascinating exploration to the psychological toll on confinement in one of history’s most secretive spaces. Drawing on his own experience of spending 36 hours locked inside a priest hole, Phil reflects on the harrowing true stories of 16th and 17th century priests, who risked capture for their faith.
Lesley Smith An Audience with Katherine of Aragon, The Spanish Tudor Queen
(4pm, £20)
Social historian Lesley Smith takes to the stage as Katherine of Aragon, widow of Arthur, Prince of Wales, and later Queen, alongside Henry VIII.