World Conker Championships

"Where exceptional arts, courageous activism and open-hearted belief meet in a stately home's parkland, holding its final festival at Boughton before moving home."

Greenbelt

"The UK's first employee-owned festival is a seriously silly, radically sustainable, meat-free adventure in utopia set in the grounds of a Northamptonshire hall."

Shambala Festival

"At midnight on Boxing Day, a mob of villagers paraders through Broughton in Northamptonshire banging tin cans, dustbin lids and any other available metal objects to drive away a witch who is said to have terrorised the village centuries ago, a custom so relentlessly noisy and purposeful that nothing else quite like it survives in England."

Broughton Tin Can Band

"Gardens of every size open in a sandstone village beneath Harpole Hills, mixing lush tropical plantings, water features, herb gardens and lovingly tended kitchen plots."

Harpole Open Gardens

"Up to eight gardens open beside the River Ise, from small terraced plots to the sweeping grounds of Bosworth House, with a medieval church, a friendly pub and a little bridge to cross."

Arthingworth Open Gardens

"A village that has opened its gardens and decked its church with themed floral art since 1963, with over 20 plots ranging from classic cottage to lovably eccentric."

Flore Flower Festival and Open Gardens

"Possibly England's oldest continuous sheepdog trials, running since 1898 in front of Longshaw Lodge on the Peak District moors, where a special train once brought 700 spectators down from Manchester."

Longshaw Sheepdog Trials

"The Staffordshire County Showground organises district ploughing and hedgelaying matches each autumn, and the Eccleshall round draws competitors from across the county to farmland around one of Staffordshire's quieter market towns for a full day of working countryside skills."

Eccleshall District Ploughing and Hedgelaying Match

"A vast rolling rugby scrum, the sway, pushes a leather hood to one of four pubs, a custom said to be 700 years old."

Haxey Hood

"Up'ards and Down'ards play a two-day game of football across three miles of town and river, goals set at old mills."

Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football

"A huge leather ball is fought over along Long Street for two hours, a Shrove Tuesday game dating to 1199."

Atherstone Ball Game

"After a hare pie is scrambled, two villages battle to carry small barrels across streams in a no-rules contest."

Hallaton Bottle Kicking and Hare Pie Scramble