A scarecrow festival was launched at Dyke in the late summer of 2014 to celebrate the end of the harvest season. The date was fixed for the weekend of Saturday and Sunday 20th and 21st September and a few weeks before, Fred, a specimen entry, was placed on the village green as an invitation to villagers and visitors to participate.

The event was organised by the village hall committee as part of their policy of bringing people together. "We have an increasing number of newcomers", explained Sam Coles, a member of the committee, "and we decided that an event that embraces both farmers and farm workers would be a suitable feature."

In the days that followed, scarecrows appeared at front gates and on garden lawns with several both outside and inside the Wishing Well public house which had offered cash prizes for the winners of £25 for first place and £15 and £10 for the runners up with the entries being be judged by local farmer William Ash at midday on Saturday. 

A limited number of entries were also offered to people living outside the Dyke who were invited to display their entries outside the village hall on festival day when there was a total of 44 entries lining the streets, attracting hundreds of visitors with stalls and activities for children to help make the event a success.

Mrs Brenda Johnson, chairman of the village hall committee, said that the festival had been extremely successful and would now be an annual village event. "Apart from encouraging people to visit Dyke, it has also been intended to give thanks for the harvest and to have a little fun at the same time", she said.

PHOTO ALBUM
Darby and Joan were two of the exhibits which stayed on outside the Wishing Well for a few days as a reminder of the event which had been such a success.
Scarecrow on the village green advertising the festival for September 2015 (above) and one of the more bizarre entries (below), the work of Andrea Bloor who lives in Main Street where she spent several hours building it from a charity ball gown, a pole and wire frame, a lampshade, a pillow and some straw. “Women can be scarecrows just as much as the men”, she explained.

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2015