A FORMER history teacher will be helping bring the famous Battle of Waterloo to life in London this weekend.

Alan Fibbins, of Spring Grove, Loughton, will be part of the English Heritage event, Waterloo Weekend, at Apsley House. He has painstakingly recreated the battle in model format using 3,000 model soldiers in the 16ft by 6ft display of the 1815 battle.

Mr Fibbins, now a music teacher, said: "I do lots of model-making, anything to do with it fascinates me. Waterloo is the world's most studied battle and what interests me most about it is how reactions to it have changed through the years."

Mr Fibbins got involved with the show thanks to the encouragement of a former pupil who is now the director of education at the National Army Museum. He now hopes further to increase the size of the model.

"I'm working towards the bicentenary in 2015 and I will continue to add to the model and then hand it over to the museum. It's hard work and very time consuming but I've always loved model making."

Waterloo Weekend is on at Apsley House between 11am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Entry is free.