ALTON'S Millennium Heritage Festival proved a real stunner, attracting thousands of people to a town transformed for the occasion into a bustling, vibrant centre of living history.

The May Day weekend extravaganza was designed to embrace 1,000 years of Alton's past in pageant, spectacle, fun and fascinating hands-on educational entertainment. Topping the bill was the re-enactment by the English Civil War Society of The Battle of Alton.

A full version of this story will be found in the Alton Herald of May 5, 2000.