MEDIEVAL knights, monks and maidens packed a town park for an annual pageant to mark its ancient roots.
King Harold Day - a yearly festival celebrating Waltham Abbey's links with the Anglo-Saxon monarch - drew thousands of visitors to the Abbey Gardens on Saturday.
Attractions included knights doing battle with swords and axes, music and morris dancing, farm animals, archery displays, bread making and a 71ft embroidery of the Bayeux Tapestry.
Organiser Tricia Gurnett said the ninth annual event was a 'great success', with visitor numbers up on last year's crowd of more than 6,000.
She said: "We have been running King Harold Day for nine years now and I have always wanted to include a blacksmith with a working forge and this year I found one.
"They were a great attraction and we hope they will come again."
The day's highlight was a procession of flagbearing performers from Sun Street to the Abbey churchyard, where a ceremony was held at the Harold Memorial Stone.
Chris Sumner laid a wreath on behalf of the town's historical society, dressed as a medieval canon.
He said: "The weather was very kind to us and there was a great crowd of people came through.
"It was a great day for the town."
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