THIS year marks the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, which was hatched in Worcestershire, and today sees the launch of a series of exhibitions to remember the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Members of families descended from some of the adversaries at the time of the 1605 plot are meeting in Westminster Hall for a ceremonial handshake to start the commemorations.

The Duke of Northumberland (family of Thomas Percy, conspirator), The Marquess of Salisbury (descendant of Robert Cecil, James I's chief minister), and Peter Knyvett (family of Sir Thomas Knyvett, who discovered Guy Fawkes with the gunpowder) will all meet to hear the outline of planned events for the coming year.

Huddington Hall, near Droitwich, was the home of three of the conspirators and is believed to be the place where Robert Catesby, leader of the plot, first revealed his intentions.

And it was here that the 36 conspirators gathered for a final Mass after Guy Fawkes was captured in the cellars at Westminster on November 4/5 1605.

Westminster Hall, where they were eventually condemned, will be the setting for an exhibition by the two Houses of Parliament about the Plot later in the year.

There will also be events staged at Shakespeare's Globe, Coughton Court, Warwickshire, by the Royal Shakespeare Company, at Syon House, Tower of London (Historic Royal Palaces and the Royal Armouries), National Portrait gallery, Houses of Parliament, Museum of London, City of Westminster Archives, The National Archives, Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey and Hatfield House throughout the year.