GAZETTE & HERALD: Master craftsmen from Chippenham are creating the ultimate monster of medieval warfare the world's biggest siege machine, a gargantuan 18m tall trebuchet, which will be fired daily at Warwick Castle from July.

Craftsmen at Carpenter Oak and Woodland Company, based at Slaughterford, are hard at work creating the collossal catapualt, which weighs 22 tonnes and will be capable of discharging 100-150kg of ammunition at a time.

The trebuchet will be an authentic historic recreation of one of the biggest and deadliest military machines of all time on a scale never before seen in Britain.

Carpenter Oak is creating the machine using British oak. "The crafting of the pieces is probably the most straightforward part of the job," said Charley Brentall, of Carpenter Oak.

"The tricky and unique part of this process is actually getting this enormous 3-D jigsaw onto the site and then putting those pieces together within two weeks. It is an exciting way to do things though, as it really will give us a unique insight into the way these machines were built and used. In the Middle Ages they would have been dismantled on a regular basis, transported in lengthy convoys of carts to the next siege site to be re-assembled ready for a new battle."

The design was developed by mediaeval weapons expert, Dr Peter Vemming, of Denmark.