Do we really need to turn to the French to teach us our own history?
Few will have had the chance to enjoy a particular slice of land in Bucknell outside Bicester in Oxfordshire: it's been a pig farm owned by one Derek Hall, 80. But Hall is now selling his land to the conservative French theme park, Puy du Fou . At £600 million to create, it is certain that this patch of land will enjoy greater visitor numbers than it has ever done before.
Does Britain really need a mammoth historical theme park with no rides?
Well, perhaps it does. The French one is a classic attraction, launched in 1978, and located in Les Epesses in the Loire in France and there's been one in Toledo, Spain, since 2021. The founder, Philippe de Villiers, is a hard-Right Catholic aristocrat, politician and novelist with seven children – and his offering attracts millions of visitors a year.
Back in Blighty, locals have given poor Mr Hall a hard time for selling his land to Puy du Fou, but perhaps it's what we need in this age of cringing self-abasement about our past – which I would wager is more glorious in its way and certainly more morally impressive than France's.
But it says it all that celebrating our past is something we have to rely on a French Right-winger to do.
That said, I fear it will be a bit of a lunatic enterprise. Villiers is hardly a figure of sobriety, having founded the Mouvement pour la France party in 1994, which pressed for a ban on mosque building and gay marriage.
Indeed, it's one thing teaching Britain's rich history in all its colours, good and bad. It's another foisting a jingoistic, patriotic love-in on visitors fooled into thinking they're getting "history". Still, with four period villages and 13 live shows, it might just be a fun day out.
