An actor who has appeared in Harry Potter films and a classic TV series is due to officially open a visitor centre at the site of the Battle of Shrewsbury this month.

Robert Hardy, who played Siegfried Farnon in TV’s All Creatures Great and Small and the Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies, will be appearing as part of an open day at the Battlefield 1403 visitor centre.

Mr Hardy was brought up in Aston-on-Clun. His father was a headmaster at Shrewsbury School.

The attractions will be launched at the site of what was one of Britain’s bloodiest battlefields on July 19, the anniversary weekend of the conflict. The site includes a visitor centre, farm shop, cafe, a car park and footpaths.

Mr Hardy is an expert on the longbow which played a key part at Shrewsbury, where the forces of Henry IV faced a rebel challenge from the army of Sir Henry Percy, known as Harry Hotspur.

Percy, whose nickname was adopted by the founders of football club Tottenham in the 1880s, was among the many thousands killed.

To thank Shrewsbury for its loyalty to him, Henry IV founded a chantry chapel, St Mary Magdalene, which is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

It became the parish church and is today simply known as Battlefield Church.

Joyce Jagger, from the centre, has previously said that Mr Hardy was instrumental in bringing about the recognition of Shrewsbury’s Battlefield as a battle site.