Medieval celebration held at Shrewsbury Castle - with pictures

Face painters, a magician, Shropshire Falconry, food and drink stalls, belly dancers and war re-enactors gathered in Shrewsbury Castle yesterday as part of the town mayor's last fundraising event.

Mayor Jane Mackenzie topped £15,000 for her chosen charity for the year, Shropshire Recovery, and is now hoping to set up a more local charity using the funds to help addicts.

Councillor Mackenzie, who was dressed in costume from the era - along with her chains - said the castle is not used for events enough.

"I'm absolutely delighted to be holding this medieval celebration for the people of Shrewsbury," she said.

"The Shrewsbury Castle is a beautiful place, but it's not used often enough, so the reason for holding it here is to draw people into the castle.

"We had 30 re-enactors who staged the Battle of Shrewsbury with full audience participation.

"I just wanted a fun-filled day where people can experience their local history and get really stuck in."

Councillor Mackenzie said the event was free but all funds donated at the event will go to her chosen charity.

She said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to have raised more than £15,000, it's not been an easy charity to support because there's a lot of stigma around addiction and I wanted to challenge that.

"I want to set up my own local charity which I will call Shrewsbury Recovery so I can continue to help people in the area.

"Addiction happens to affect so many people, everybody has been affected in some way or another and it's a growing problem."

Little Isaac Owen from Shrewsbury was wearing a helmet while chatting to a knight yesterday.

The three-year-old was at the event with his mother Anna Owen, who works in admin at Mount Pleasant Primary School in Shrewsbury.

Mrs Owen, 40, married her husband Jamie in Shrewsbury Castle back in 2014.

She said: "Isaac is a bit obsessed with knights at the moment. We only bought his helmet recently.

"We went to the Field to Fork Festival on Saturday and he wanted to a farmer, but now he wants to be a knight after this.

"It's a fantastic event, Isaac is really in awe with it all."

Siblings, Daniel, six, Oliver, four, and Hannah Nayman, two, had their faces painted with a mix of dragons and butterflies at the event.

Their father Rob, a 40-year-old teacher from Shrewsbury, said: "It's good fun the children have really enjoyed themselves.

"The face painting and the re-enactors with their weapons seem to have been a hit.

"There should be more events on here."