Families are being offered the chance to step back in time at Oxford Castle and wage medieval warfare.

The castle, in New Road, is holding a Knight School, with a range of activities centred around knightly pursuits, on Saturday, July 26, and Sunday, July 27.

Events organiser Dee Jeffery said: "We are a castle and we have got so much history and the medieval part of that history is really important.

"Any event that's going to flag that up is great."

There will be a number of different zones during the day, focusing on armour and sword fighting, and demonstrations of fighting by some of the team of knights who will be organising the activities.

In the armour area, people will be able to try on a variety of different armoury, including chain mail, breastplates, helmets and gauntlets.

Fight training will be carried out with toy, rather than real swords, with even the youngest children able to take part using blow-up swords, to make sure they don't hurt each other.

The demonstration will feature not just a dramatic display of sword-fighting by knights in full suits of armour, but also hand-to-hand combat.

The event will culminate in a mini-warriors show, where children will form their own medieval English army and go to war with the opposing 'French' forces.

Miss Jeffery said: "It's a real family event and we hope people will come along and get into the spirit of it.

"We just want it to be fun. We don't want to get brothers and sisters fighting each other too much, it's just purely for fun and they will be toy swords of course.

"I imagine the French army will probably be made up of a lot of the parents, which should be quite entertaining."

A medieval fair at the castle held last month attracted more than 2,000 visitors and organisers are hoping to attract similar numbers to the Knight School.

The event starts at 10am both days and it costs £5 per person for an all-day pass.

For more information about the event, see www.oxfordcastle.com or call 01865 260666.