History festival showcases the fascinating story of Buckinghamshire

October 30 sees the start of the month-long Buckinghamshire History Festival, an annual event now in its sixth year. The focus for the festival is to bring the fascinating history of Buckinghamshire to everyone – by uncovering the more hidden stories of those who made the county their home over the years as well as looking again at the well-known aspects of our local history.

This year the festival – which is run by Buckinghamshire Council’s Archives Team – is for a second year happening mainly online. And this year there’s a new feature  – a series of special live events in which local historians explore an aspect of the county’s rich history. So you can attend fascinating live discussions from the comfort of your own home – and all for free.

In addition to the live events, the festival is continuing last year’s popular feature of releasing podcasts of talks by historians and broadcasters. Podcast highlights for 2021 include TV broadcaster Jay Blades on the furniture-making heritage of High Wycombe and historian Melanie Backe-Hansen, who works on the TV series A House Through Time, who will be giving some tips on how to research the history of your own home.

Clive Harriss, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, said:

“I’m really pleased that our annual history festival has been able to continue to develop the online format that was first tried out of necessity last year. We’ve a really rich history in Buckinghamshire, and the History Festival gives us all the opportunity – from the comfort of our own homes – to not only learn more about the well-known aspects of our heritage, but also to explore some lesser-known aspects of the story of Buckinghamshire and the people who have lived and worked here.”

Katherine Gwyn, Senior Community Outreach and Projects Archivist at the council, focused on the live events that are new to the festival for 2021:

“Holding live events via Zoom is a great approach – it keeps the convenience and safety of the online format, but brings back the spontaneity that’s part of listening to a live speaker talk about their work and research. We’re really pleased to be offering a whole range of these live events across the festival- you can find the full listing on our website, with links to book your free tickets.”

Find the Buckinghamshire History Festival at https://histfestbucks.co.uk