IT'S Merry Maytime at the Worcestershire County Museum - and that means a five-day Medieval Living History Weekend and Activity Week.

Visitors to Hartlebury Castle from Sunday to Thursday will get a good flavour of life for normal folk in the 15th century, a time when many were called from the land to fight in the Wars of the Roses.

Sir William Gascoigne's Fellowship, a re-enactment group dedicated to 'portrayal of the common person during the Wars of the Roses' will be camping in the grounds to demonstrate life in the period.

"We are not portraying a military encampment but demonstrating aspects of life in this period," said a spokeswoman. "We are interested in how these people lived, not just how they died."

On Sunday and Monday, people can visit the Fellowship's camp to see how people worked and played. There will be displays of archery and other military skills in the Moat Meadow, there will be brewing, cooking, candle-dipping, rush light dipping and medicine making around the camp as well as laundering, spinning, shoemaking and games.

From Tuesday to Thursday, the camp will still be occupied when there will be storytelling by a midwife, a soldier, a servant and a farmer. There will be medieval activities throughout the grounds and galleries as well as Elizabethan music and verse, hat making, brass rubbing, writing and cooking.

On the first weekend, events run from 11am to 5pm. From Tuesday to Thursday, there will be happenings from 10.30am to 4.30pm. The museum is four miles south of Kidderminster, off the A449. Admission will be £2.50 for adults and £1.20 for children. Family tickets (up to two adults and three children) are £6.50. Parking is free.