West Hallam - Well Dressing & Scarecrow Trail
w/e 18 July 2010
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
The West Hallam Well Dressing Festival has been a
regular attraction in the village during July for several years
and last year saw the introduction of a new feature - the Scarecrow
Trail. This proved to be very successful and once again has been
incorporated into the festival. We visited the village on Sunday
afternoon.
There are usually two large well dressings and several smaller
ones at various locations in the old part of the village and
the large display by the the West Hallam Readers' Group managed
to combine the art of well dressing with an image of a scarecrow
in this panel in School Square.
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Sunday was one of the better days to visit as the weather had
still not broken and there were fewer people about which made
it much easier to inspect the wells and the scarecrows than at
the opening event the previous day. It was still quite busy in
School Square as people wandered between the displays. The Readers'
Group panel can be seen here on the right with more panels and
scarecrows on the left. Bunting added to the festival atmosphere
and we were tempted along the road to Hall Court (centre) by
the sight of more scarecrows.
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The ominous figure of Darth Vada complete with light sabre seemed
to be guarding the entrance to Hall Court which is overlooked
by the tower of St Wilfrid's Church, another site on our annual
sojourn to the festival.
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To reach the church we returned via School Square and through
The Village passing another selection of dressings and scarecrows.
A barrel organ soothed the reclining scarecrow in the deck chair
and a tableau of characters from "The Wizard Of Oz"
stood adjacent to a well dressing by the Community Pre-School.
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Also nearby on a more serious note this panel drew everyone's
attention to the Help For Heroes charity and the "Thank
You" box collected donations to help their work with our
wounded men and women in the Armed Forces.
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Another
attraction on Sunday afternoon was a performance by Ilkeston Brass in the packed courtyard (right)
at the side of the old school. All the seats were taken and it
was standing room only on the road outside (left) but the music
could be heard all over the old village. Peering through the
hedge from the road I was able to get the shot above of some
of the musicians.
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The other large well dressing in the village, known as the Round
Well, was the circular one in its customary position outside
the old school. This year it featured a design showing J. M.
Barrie and Peter Pan to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Barrie's
birth. All the rights to "Peter Pan" were donated by
Barrie to Great Ormonde Street Hospital for children and the
hospital still benefits from his generous gift today.
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Heading up the drive towards the church we were met by two more
scarecrows, David and Goliath and the adjacent tree had been
labelled the Prayer Tree. Slips of paper were available to write
prayer requests which were then attached to the tree.
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A notice at the end of the drive had advertised the "Teddy
Tower Slide" stating that it was back by popular demand
and Teddy Bears would be sliding down a zip wire. We were just
in time to see the latest brave bear slide down to the welcoming
arms below.
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Before returning home we drove all around the village - both
the old and the new parts - and there were many scarecrows all
over the place worthy of a picture but this particular one near
the Mapperley crossroads had caught my eye on the way to West
Hallam so that's where I stopped. The trio of Uncle Sam, Mickey
and Minnie Mouse were part of a display called "American
Adventure" and all three showed that you don't have to be
dressed in rags to be a scarecrow these days.
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