West Hallam - The Scarecrow Trail 2016
w/e 24 July 2016
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
Running to coincide with the West Hallam Well Dressing
Festival, the annual Scarecrow Trail was staged for the eighth
time this year with villagers designing and displaying scarecrows
right across the parish. Official Trail leaflets were on sale
at £1.00 each and if returned noting the names of each
exhibit were in line for a chance to win a prize. Last year the
Trail raised over £400 for West Hallam charities. There
were about 70 scarecrow locations in total this year and I managed
to photograph most of them although one listed location did not
have a scarecrow on display when we visited and I know for a
fact I missed at least one other. The leaflet also said that
there may be other scarecrows that were not listed and it was
quite possible to come across these too. I spotted a couple of
these extra scarecrows but didn't enter the prize draw. It was
fun just searching them out and below is a selection of the ones
we did see.
At Scarecrow Headquarters in the centre of the old village where
the leaflets were on sale, there were actually six scarecrows
and four of them are in the image above. I doubt that the Radio
Derby presenters have ever been seen like this before. From left
to right they represent Andy Potter, Andy Twigge and Sally Pepper
with Ian Skye in the shadows behind who had, according to a notice
pinned to his torso, lost his head due to nesting birds!
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Prizes are awarded for the best scarecrows which could be in
two categories - "Traditional" or "Open"
and LOL on the High Lane looks like an open category entry.
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The designers of the Suffragette scarecrows outside the Village
Hall took their inspiration from the 150th anniversary of the
1866 petition calling for votes for women. It was quite apt that
during the week of the Well Dressing and Scarecrow Trail Festival
that Theresa May took over from David Cameron as Prime Minister.
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2016 is also the anniversary of the author Roald Dahl's birth
one hundred years ago and this large scarecrow of the BFG (Big
Friendly Giant) paid homage to that anniversary.
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Beatrix Potter was born fifty years before Roald Dahl and some
of her characters to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth
were on display in Mr McGregor's garden.
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Not all the scarecrows celebrated anniversaries but I was surprised
to learn that Bob The Builder has been around since the late
1990s.
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Wally is another character that dates back a little further than
Bob - to 1987 in fact. Wally or Waldo as he is known in America
is usually pictured with lots of other people, the objective
being to find "Where's Wally" but in the absence of
other scarecrows, he could be found here hiding in the shrubbery.
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An interesting use of natural materials made Jack Lumber easier
to find in the adjacent garden to Wally.
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The villagers in West Hallam showed no lack of imagination when
making their scarecrows and it was another fictional character
that was the inspiration for this offering to the festival, Little
Orphan Annie and her dog Sandy.
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Nursery rhymes and novelty songs too also provided ideas for
designs and this depiction of "There Was an Old Lady Who
Swallowed a Fly" is just one example.
The map below shows the locations of all the scarecrows I photographed
(including those above) in a couple of visits during the week
of the Trail. Zoom in, pan around and select each location to
see the photo. Clicking on the photo will open up a larger version
- press "Esc" to return. The blue square symbol means
there are two locations in the same photo, the red diamond shows
a previous winner and the yellow star indicates Scarecrow Headquarters
where there are four photos. For more information about the Scarecrow
Trail visit
The
West Hallam Scarecrow Trail website.
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