Scarecrow Pursuits keep Urchfont visitors guessing

1:52pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

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ONCE again Urchfont scarecrow festival consolidated its position as the first and best of its kind in Wiltshire as over 5,000 visitors made their way to the village over the bank holiday weekend.

People from all over the county and beyond braved the occasional shower to follow the trail of 54 scarecrow displays through the village.

This year's theme was Scarecrow Pursuits and each tableau was accompanied by a coloured label to tell visitors which category it represented, a la Trivial Pursuits.

There were prizes for the first all-correct entries out of the hat at the end of the weekend.

Most were not difficult to identify. Henry VIII was seen standing over the severed head of one of his wives and the clue in the programme read: "Who needs six wives anyway?"

Other figures represented Liberace, Margaret Thatcher, Harry Houdini, Stephen Hawking, Charlie Chaplin, Archimedes, Bill Oddie and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.

Thor Heyerdahl on KonTiki drifted on the duck pond.

Some, like Bouddica and surrealist painter Salvador Dali caused some head scratching, but others like ski jumper Eddie the Eagle and King Harold were fairly obvious.

Chairman of the organising committee, Keith Brockie, said: "The rain made no difference to the numbers of people who came along.

"The only problem was that there was so much rain on Sunday night, we had to close the car park on Monday morning and let people park on the streets.

"But later on we were able to open the field again."

In addition to the scarecrow trail, there was a plant sale organised by June Turnbull, an art exhibition in the village hall and a floral festival in the church.

The area round the famous village pond was used for a tea tent, a barbecue and a beer tent, all of which did a roaring trade all three days of the festival.

The village community shop also did well, running out of ice creams and soft drinks towards the end of Monday.

It is not yet known how much the festival will have raised for village good causes, but much of it will go towards the extension of the village hall.

Work will begin on the project this weekend.