{"id":78264,"date":"2026-06-07T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/78264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:18:10","slug":"town-returns-to-its-bustling-medieval-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/78264\/","title":{"rendered":"Town returns to its &#8216;bustling&#8217; Medieval roots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A town has turned the clock back hundreds of years with a weekend of events including a medieval fashion show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rochdale Medieval Fair, which also included an encampment and historic re-enactments, was organised by the local council with the aim of teaching people about the town&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It followed a community archaeological dig held last summer in which artefacts which could be medieval were uncovered on the slopes behind the town hall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Archaeologist Jordan Perris from Rochdale Development Agency, who claimed the town was &#8220;bustling&#8221; and &#8220;hectic&#8221; hundreds of years ago, said a sword belt and pottery had been discovered during the dig.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We did some large-scale community digs here where we invited thousands of people from Rochdale to come and have a go,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said they found what could be some medieval pottery and a sword belt fitting which could also be from the period.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Jordan Perris, who has short brown hair and is wearing a checked brown shirt, is being interviewed. He is standing on a section of grass with flowers and trees behind him.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/610f2ecdab1427b08b7dfe3c9f46952c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jordan Perris said thousands of people took part in an archaeological dig at the site last summer [BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Perris said Rochdale would have been &#8220;quite a bustling hectic place&#8221; during the Middle Ages, with a market around the church.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mark Dandy, a re-enactor from Historia Normannis Lancashire, said the event was &#8220;a chance for us to explain some of the more in depth bits [of history], correct some of the misconceptions that people might have about history and educate the public&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Visitor Lyndsay Tate said the archery was &#8220;loads and loads of fun&#8221; and added: &#8220;I can&#8217;t wait to watch them doing the Medieval fighting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A line of people are standing in a grassed area while holding medieval-style bows and arrows, with people dressed in medieval costume guiding them. Several people nearby are taking photos and a grand historical building can be seen in the background.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5e18a42b3271e7dc7d8d3bf8cec515de.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Visitors to the event in Rochdale had a chance to try their hand at medieval archery [BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The event has been taking place around Rochdale Town Hall and included a chance to sample Medieval-style food and music from the period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It was organised as part of the Broadfield Park Slopes Project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A man in a green t-shirt and wide brimmed hat is working at an excavated archaeological trench on a slope below a church.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/93b2d6673e4407e877ffb03b5269b058.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The community archaeological dig took place last summer [BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Listen to the best of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjdwpw?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds&quot;}\" class=\"link \">BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds<\/a> and follow BBC Manchester on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcmanchester\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Facebook;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bbcradiomanc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:X;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X&quot;}\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcmanchester\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Instagram;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.<\/p>\n<p>More on this storyRelated internet links<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A town has turned the clock back hundreds of years with a weekend of events including a medieval&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,31167,31163,31166,31164,31165],"class_list":["post-78264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-medieval-pottery","tag-medieval-re-enactments","tag-rochdale","tag-rochdale-development-agency","tag-rochdale-town-hall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}