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New London Day Oct. 24, 2026 will focus on Oct. 1776 when all Bedford Co. males aged 16 - 50 came to New London, the county seat, for 10 days militia drills. Visit a Rev War encampment near the site of the New London arsenal (1775 - 1813) where firearms were being repaired and saltpeter & gunpowder produced. Archeology exhibits include the arsenal site, John Hook's colonial store, and 1762 Mead's Tavern. Tour Mead's Tavern, the 1895 W. Driskill's Store, the former Bedford Alum Springs Hotel (1870s - 1920s) and African American church. The Heritage Forum includes local museums, SAR, DAR, central Appalachian Cherokee tribe, Va. Canals & Navigation Soc., Patrick Henry's Red Hill, and others. Portrayers of a Bedford Co. Burgess, colonels, comoany captains, a slave who served with his master (& was manumitted postwar), and others, with scheduled period conversations, incl. news from 3 Bedford Co. companies in service Dall, 1776 (one co. guarding the lead mines; one with the Cherokee Expedition, at Holston River: one serving in Tidewater), Crafters, colonial & Cherokee music, WW II exhibit, antique car show, food trucks, a brush arbor service, author book signings, and more!