June 18, 2012

Wray Scarecrow Festival Fete / Fair & GB4WSF




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)

I don't intend to put many pictures of the Scarecrows from around the village into this blog because there are a large number excellent photographs taken by Billy Mathews.  If you would like to see them click on the link below where Billy has posted images on Fickr 


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


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

A Display of the classic Mini


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.

Director and producer: George Pillas
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 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