To mark the occasion of Wray Fair’s Silver Jubilee, one of this year’s themes for the scarecrows was ‘Anniversaries’. There are plenty to choose from – 2012 marks 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens, 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic and, of course, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
There are a handful of places where I have enjoyed operating radio events at over the years and Wray Scarecrow festival is one of them. Its a time when the whole village and friends get together and work hard to provide a first class family event and fun filled diary of activities. The diary has something for all the family to enjoy culminating with a special day on the first Monday in May and the Wray Fair.
Wray Scarecrow Festival started on the 28th of April with a host
of activities that can be seen below
Wray School performs – confirmed daily at 1:30pm, Mon-Fri during the Festival. | ||
Event | Date/Time | Location |
Start of the Scarecrow Festival | Saturday 28th April | Wray Village |
10km Road Race | Saturday 28th April - 13:15hrs | Register - Wray Institute |
Scarecrow Festival | Sunday 29th April | Wray Village |
Car Boot Sale | Sunday 29th April - 08:00hrs | Wray School Field |
Cricket Match | Sunday 29th April - 14:30hrs | Wray School Field |
Scarecrow Festival | Monday 30th April | Wray Village |
Scarecrow Festival | Tuesday 1st May | Wray Village |
Scarecrow Festival | Wednesday 2nd May | Wray Village |
John O'Gaunt Morris Dancers | Wednesday 2nd May - 19:00hrs | George & Dragon Pub |
Scarecrow Festival | Thursday 3rd May | Wray Village |
Classic Bike Night | Thursday 3rd May - 19:00hrs to 21:00hrs | Bridge House Farm Tea Rooms |
Scarecrow Festival | Friday 4th May | Wray Village |
Giant Scarecrow Parade | Friday 4th May - 20:00hrs | Wray Village |
Scarecrow Festival | Saturday 5th May | Wray Village |
Lune Valley Voices | Saturday 5th May - 14:00hrs | Wray Village |
Scarecrowball race | Sunday 6th May | Wray Village |
Scarecrow Fair | Monday 7th May | See details below |
Please click on the links below to view videos taken at the festival
The History of the Wray Scarecrow Festival made by LancashireOne
The Giant Scarecrow Parade
The video was taken on Friday 4th May by LancashireOne
Information on the diary's of events taken from the Scarecrow Festival website
Programme of events during Wray Fair on Monday 07th May 2012 | |
11:30am | Wray to Caton Moor Fell Race – Starting in Main Street |
Events in the arena | |
11:30am | Samba Band |
12:00pm | Official opening – by the cast of Morecambe Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society - The Sound of Music |
12:15pm | Duck herding |
12:45pm | Cumberland birds of prey |
1:15pm | Junior football match |
1:45pm | Fell Race - prize presentation |
2:15pm | Dog agility |
3:15pm | Duck herding |
3:45pm | Cumberland birds of prey (finishing at approximately 4:15pm) |
All other images were taken by me unless otherwise stated. You are welcome to copy any of my pictures for personal non-profit making use.
Sands Contest Group
The weather forecast for the event was not good with strong winds and rain forecast for both the Sunday and on Monday the day of the fair. As you can see from the pictures below we were blessed with perfect weather which only broke as the station was being taken down late Monday afternoon.
Holy Trinity Church
For those of you interested in Local History the church was built in 1839–40
and designed by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe.
for a full history of the Church please click on the link below.
The picture above was taken on the day of the Fair
Antenna Setup
On the evening of Sunday 6th June Paul 2E0CKC arrived at the showground with his XYL Marion who wasted no time getting the pitch for the caravan sorted out. Kev G6FKE and I picked up the equipment needed for the antenna and arrived on site at 6pm.
The full team of members who helped set the antenna's up was: Paul 2E0CKC, Damien G0LLG, Kev G6FKE and in a limited capacity myself G0RDH.
Whilst we were busy unpacking equipment, Marion set to work putting the awning up and as we contemplated our contemplations and ruminated over our thoughts on how best to set the antenna up, Marion had the awning up, took the dog for a walk, put the kettle on and brewed up.
The awning acted as our base for the event.
We are grateful to the village resident who allowed us to run a mains supply from his property.
Damien Paul and Kev sorted the ropes out ready
for tossing over a suitable branch on the tree.
It was decided with this being a one day event to use a 40m dipole. We considered the best way to erect the antenna leaving as little footprint as possible and decided upon using two trees located either side of the caravan, the attached ropes gave us the tension needed to support the antenna.
Paul and I looked at how we could suspend the centre and came up with the idea of removing the small trolley wheel at the front of the caravan and dropping a mast into the housing that was secured with a clamp and a base plate was secured on the grass below the mast to stop it sinking into the soft earth.
The only compromise was loosing the base section of the mast but this worked fine giving us a centre point for the antenna of around 25ft above ground. This approach worked out very well on heath and safety grounds because there was no need to use stakes and extra ropes around the caravan.
A picture of Paul 2E0CKC taken as stall holders were setting up on Monday
Ian arrived early on Monday morning with his XYL Linda G0YLM and close friend and fellow amateur Bob G1OCK. It was not long before the K3 was setup and linked to the Ranger 811H Linear Damien was good enough to loan us for the event.
Ian G0VGS
Ian started the event off after finding a clear frequency on the band. and it was not long before he had an early morning pileup. Ian handed the station over to me where contacts continued to line up and work the station.
Prior to operating I took a look around the site and spied heaven on a spit..... regular readers of the blog will know that I love my food and here I was operating the radio when my logger sat down with an oven bottom barmcake filled with pork, stuffing and apple sauce to say that I was disgruntled would be an understatement.
On top of that I realised that I had forgotten to take any money out with me but Paul redeemed himself by loaning me the £4 needed to purchase this guilty pleasure and boy was it good!
Linda G0YLM took over from me and it was not long before she organised a running list bringing order to what was organised ciaos. As stations called in she she noted callsigns and in true Dads Army style inform the station's she heard "Your name vil also go on zee list" :)
Linda G0YLM with Kev G6FKE logging
Despite wearing headphones we had difficulty masking out the audio from the PA system that had one of it speaker speaker cones facing in our direction. One of the funnier moments was when the sheep dog demonstration was running, audio was provided via a wireless mic back to the PA system and each time the dog whistle was used it was akin to the hetero-dyne of somebody tuning up on frequency.
As you will hear on Barries Video link "The Samba Band" entertaining the public did not need the PA.
Thanks to Stephany and Barrie and Kathy for organising this event at Wray
below is a short video that Barrie took on the day
Matthew M3UAY did some operating with his Dad Andrew G0LWU logging for him
Operators for the day included:
Ian G0VGS, Linda G0YLM, Brian G0RDH, Stephany G1LAT, Andrew G0LWU, Matthew M3UAY, Kev G6FKE and Mark M0DGK and thanks to Marion who kept us fed and watered throughout the event.
If you would like to learn more about B4RN (Broadband for Rural North please take a look at the link below) It may inspire you to look further into it for your community
There are a number of other video's available on YOUTUBE made by local residents
The next section of the Blog covers some of the Stalls and Excellent Displays that took place over the day
Amongst the numerous stalls selling home produce was the one above that caught my attention because they also catered for members of the public restricted to a Gluten Free diet.
The Wickerman
The Wickerman
It was nice to see country crafts on display in the form of weaving wicker chairs and baskets etc.
I think this display was made by a Wray resident
The Ducking Stool
The Ducking Stool was a popular attraction as members of the public looked
forward to the splash of a young maiden hitting the water.
There were plenty of satisfied customers and a number of maidens
on hand to take the seat..... The water was cold!
It was a pleasure to see and look around the beautiful
organ seen below. The history of the organ was taken
on site as presented by the owner
DE-PRONKJWAIL
60 KEY DUTCH STREET ORGAN
THE ORGAN WAS BUILT IN 1850 AS A BARREL ORGAN
AFTER 60 YEARS USE IT WAS CONVERTED TO PLAY BOOK MUSIC
AND ENLARGED TO A 46 KEY ORGAN BY;- LIMONAIRE OF (PARIS)
AGAIN IN 1930 IT WAS OVERHAULED AND ENLARGED TO
A 60 KEY ORGAN BY GEBR'VAN STEENPUT OF (BELGIUM)
IN 1960(E.VAN POLEN) OF GRONINGEN NETHERLANDS EXHIBITED
IN THE NAUTIC HALL (HAARLEM) AND ALSO PLAYED THE STREETS
IN (GRONINSEN) FOLLOWED BY A SPELL IN UTRECHT MUSEUM
IN 1979 FURTHER RESTERATION WAS CARRIED OUT BY:-
ANTON PLUER OF (BUSSUM) NETHERLANDS.
THE ORGAN HAS 215 WOODEN PIPES MADE FROM VARIOUS
TYPES OF WOOD AND HAS PLAYED IN MOST LARGE CITIES IN EUROPE.
PRONKJEWAIL IS ON THE BOOKS OF THE ROYAL NETHERLANDS
EMBASSY IN LONDON, FOR WHEN A DUTCH STREET ORGAN
IS REQUIRED IN THIS COUNTRY FOR PROMOTIONAL WORK ETC.
THE ORGAN WAS PURCHASED AT THE GREAT DORSET STEAM FAIR
IN SEPTEMBER 1988 BY THE PRESENT OWNER
01524261577
Classic Vehicles
There was a wide selection of Lotus high performance cars on display
How this beauty failed to loose its spoiler beats me it was just a couple of inches above the grass
There were also a few TVR's on display
The Wills Jeep
On to the parade ground
The main arena hosted a number of events which included a Samba Band Sheep and Geese Herding and a very good aerial display of a number of birds of Prey.
Gary Swainson
Gary Swainson gave an excellent demonstrations with the help of the Birds of Prey he had brought along. I was unable to watch the first demonstration but was able to listen to his commendatory which was flawless and smooth as silk as he relayed factual information on each of the birds.
I was however able to watch part of the last display where onlookers were able to watch the aerial abilities of the Harris Hawks and a young Eagle Owl etc.
The Harris Hawk
Graham explained that although the Harris Hawk could hunt alone it was far more effective hunting in groups, you can see another Harris Hawk walking behind Graham as he lets another take flight.
Please click on the link below for a video of the Eagle Owl
filmed by jackhynes
A short film on the controversial status of the Eagle Owl in Britain.
With thanks to Tony Warburton of the World Owl Trust and Tim Melling of the RSPB.
With thanks to Tony Warburton of the World Owl Trust and Tim Melling of the RSPB.
Director and producer: George Pillas
Camera and editor: Jack Hynes
Script writer: Iuliia Poberezhna
Camera and editor: Jack Hynes
Script writer: Iuliia Poberezhna
The link below shows a great clip of the Eagle Owl
filmed on a high speed camera and what a set of talons
Uploaded by wickedinsight on Nov 24, 2009
If you would like to learn more about the work Graham is involved in please click on the link below
http://www.birdofpreycentre.co.uk/
I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog. Although this was a radio event form the Sands Contest Group, I thought it would be nice to focus on the entertainment and local produce that was available for the public to see. It scares me just to think of the logistics that go into making this festival such a success year after year. It has been a pleasure for the group to be small part of this years event.
The next Blog will cover our special event station GB4QDJ
Best 73
Brian G0RDH
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