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Medieval fair? You must be jousting.

Chris Hudson
7/ 5/2008

A MEDIEVAL battle, the like not seen since the Norman Conquest, is about to erupt between events organisers and residents.

The two groups are clashing, Hastings style, over a proposed Middle Ages weekend planned for the summer in a sleepy backwater of Wilmslow.

Local landowner, Karl Eckert, who is behind the Medieval Fun Weekend has thrown down the gauntlet to his neighbours who strongly object to the proposed jousting, bonfire and ducking stool just yards from their gardens.

The event, pencilled in for July 18-20, to take place on the land between Upcast Lane and Clay Lane, has met with disapproval from locals who fear the green belt cannot cope.

Mum-of-two Jen Baron of Green Villa Park said: "It’s like having Glastonbury on your front doorstep. The fields won’t cope. The drainage is poor and the access is terrible."

Residents are concerned that their once beautiful green belt walkway will be turned into a modern day battleground with marauding punters despoiling their unsullied earth.

Famous neighbours have also rallied and joined in with the verbal jousting.

Former Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones, aka Les Battersby said: "It’s a walkers’ paradise round there. I walk my dog through these fields. The walkers won’t like this when they find out."

The Lord of the Manor in this feudal recreation is Karl Eckert, 51, of Ridge View, Macclesfield who is trying to make a childhood dream come to life by putting on this weekend.

He said: "It’s been a bit a dream of mine since I was a kid. I liked the knights in armour. Years later I realised that living in that time wouldn’t actually be that romantic so I wanted to recreate it for a weekend."

The part-time farmer who owns 19 pigs, four cows and some alpacas, is expecting crowds of a "couple of thousand" to his three-day affair where MOBILES and ELECTRICITY are banned.

Anyone found with a mobile or without medieval attire will be immediately put in the stocks.

Nearby school Lindow Primary School’s headteacher Phillip Beaumont said: "We do cover the Medieval period in the curriculum. I have passed the details on to another teacher for them to look at the proposal."

A spokesman for Macclesfield Borough Council said that Karl Eckert and Fred Ford have applied for a licence to stage battle re-enactments.

He said there have been objections and as a result, there will be a Licensing Committee hearing in June and people have until May 14 to lodge objections with MBC.