ST BRIAVELS Castle will come under siege on May 1 when Royalist troops battle for the strategic position held by Parliamentarians.
The fact that such an even never happened will not stop members of the Chepstowe Garrison reenactment group loading up their 17th century muskets and cannon to help build a new hall for the village primary school.
The event is part of the entertainment planned for St Briavels May Fair, due to be opened by MP Diana Organ.
The centre of the village will be filled with street entertainers and stalls and there will be a pig roast, vintage vehicle rally and farmers market selling local produce.
Tours of the castle – with a gruesome past and said to be horribly haunted in parts – will also be on offer.
The East Tower is said to have a haunted room where people have experienced sudden drops in temperature and the sensation of being pushed.
In King John's bedchamber the skeleton of a baby was found bricked up above the window next to the fireplace – and visitors have claimed to hear a baby crying in the room. Another ghost, a lady in grey, is said to haunt the landing.
There is also to be a gathering of scarecrows on this first May day of the new millennium, and one of them will lead the Castle tour.