The gauntlet has been thrown down in the battle for the Shield of Loxwood. The UK’s most spectacular and immersive medieval and jousting festival, The Loxwood Joust, returns with excitement and intrigue as outlaws rise up to take back the Shield of Loxwood on the 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th August. Jousting provided these knights with practical, hands-on preparation in horsemanship, accuracy and combat simulations and kept them in fighting shape between battles. But, what was initially intended purely as military training quickly became a form of popular entertainment.