Harley, (L to R) Lexi and Jacobie Raven enjoy the Northwold Scarecrow Festival as Prince Charles paints a portrait of the Queen. Picture: Simon Parker

Scarecrow royalty visit Northwold

Andrew Smith Sunday, August 5, 2012
6:12 PM

Royalty, Fact or Fiction was the theme of a revived village scarecrow festival at the weekend.

Among the 50 or so weird and wonderful straw-filled characters dotted around Northwold were the Queen with James Bond and his parachute, Queen Boudicca, Prince Charles, the Queen of Hearts, Queen Bee and Worzel Gummidge, King of the Scarecrows.

Ann Howarth, who organised the event with Jane Luckman and Andy Hull, said: “It was a very good turnout of scarecrows and we had lots of people going round looking at them.

“I was particularly pleased because a lot of people who entered scarecrows into the competition had never done so before.

“The village used to have a scarecrow festival until five or six years ago and we thought we’d give it a go again, just to bring the village together and get people out and about.”

The winners, judged by Rosemary Crisp and the Rev Ken Waters, were: Funniest scarecrow – King Edward (a giant potato) by Mary Hull; Most Original – Priscilla, Queen of Northwold, by Ann Womack and Sara Sharples; Best-made – Princess Kate by Evie Hudson, age six; and Best Child’s – Beauty (from Beauty and the Beast) by Millie Ayres, age five. The People’s Favourite was Lizzie and Corgi by Hannah Bradford, age 11.

Mrs Howarth said a little money was raised to cover costs and any left over would go to a village charity.