They’re Scarecrows captain, but not as we know it! The Thornton Hough Scarecrow festival attracts visitors from throughout the region every year, all coming to see what outrageous and unusual creations they can find dotted throughout the village during the week long celebrations. The festival won the Mersey Award Tourism Award for ‘Small Event of the Year’ in 2004, and Thornton Hough boasts the only village green in England to have a green flag. The small picturesque village uses the funds raised from the Scarecrow Festival each year to build new facilities in the village, as well as a chance to bring the whole community together, get a little bit creative as well as a bit crazy! We met up with some of the organisers - Treasurer Karen Young, Merchandise and PR manager Marla Johnson, Green’s manager Maureen Arthur and Chris Higgins from Wirral Council at what’s widely known as ‘Scarecrow Headquarters’ (Marla’s house) to find out what makes this peaceful village go scarecrow crazy once every year? How did it all start? | "Another one was just a cross and it said ‘Scarecrow on Holiday’ - or ‘Lilly Cabbage’ and it was a scarecrow with a cabbage for a head!" | | Marla, Merchandise and PR manager. |
Marla: “The first scarecrow festival was 1999, and it started with the game keeper actually going through a little village in Yorkshire and he saw a scarecrow festival and he thought it was a good idea to get all the villagers together, so that’s how it really first started and it’s been going ever since except for one year when it was the foot and mouth and we had to cancel.” Who gets involved in the scarecrow festival? Karen Young: “The whole community get involved in the festival, all the organizations - the brownies, the guides, the school, the businesses, we’re very dependant on the residents making scarecrows because that forms the display, but nobody is left out or not able to take part. Even the local smithy puts out a scarecrow and they have a display on the Saturday shoeing horses for us which is quite unique! The post office, the seven stars, the turret, all the coffee shops they all make their own scarecrows and take part on the day - so it’s a whole community event.” “The children from the school have what we call ‘Scarecrow Week’ where they make the scarecrows the week before. One of their homeworks is to take home little garden sticks to make their own scarecrow. Each child has their own scarecrow which is planted around the school gardens, and each class makes a big scarecrow which goes on display, and then normally towards the end of the week we have a scarecrow day in school where all the children come dressed as scarecrows and we take then on a village walk, we make a whole day of examining them, and seeing who’s made which one and how many of the same they can spot. They have a lovely day and they get fully involved.” What’s in store for visitors this year?
 | | Children outside Scarecrow HQ! |
Chris Higgins: “Well this year there is a national celebration -Year of the Sea, we don’t normally have a theme we just let everybody create whatever scarecrows they want, but we suggested at the end of last year perhaps to celebrate Year of the Sea and it might be nice to have nautical scarecrows. We’re hearing some very good ideas but everybody keeps very secretive about what they’re actually making until the week, so I can’t tell you what will be there because it’s all very hush, hush! “Of course there’s the usual fete day when there’s a lot of entertainment particularly for children, there’s going to be circus skills workshop, a balloon wizard who makes absolutely fabulous balloons for everybody to look at, there’s bands, Morris dancing, and through the week and in the evenings there’s various entertainment as well, and of course there’s lots of stalls on the green. This year the stall holders have all been asked to create a scarecrow themselves and they’re also inviting people to vote for their favourite scarecrow - pick up a program or follow the scarecrow trail and pick out their favourite.” What’s the best scarecrow you’ve ever had? Everybody: “Ooohhhhh - you can’t ask that, that’s a bit politically incorrect! It’s terribly hard to pick one!” Karen Young: “That’s virtually impossible to say really, because there’s such a diverse choice of scarecrows. Some of them are very funny and a very clever play on words, and some of them - obviously people have spent a great deal of time making them, some of them are just so simple but are so clever in the way they are created. So it’s almost impossible to choose one really, you just have to come along and have a look and see for yourself.” “We don’t usually pick out a winner, we give out a gold, silver or merit award to all the scarecrows that are out in everybody’s gardens, and it took me and a friend all day last year to get round the village and see them all and we were just gobsmacked with variety, originality and the effort and time that everybody had put into it, and you know you come back and it just makes you laugh and makes you smile really, which is what it’s all about.”
 | | The Village Green at festival time. |
Maureen Arthur: “Everyone’s choice is different as well, what some people find funny other people perhaps don’t but there’s always something that tantalises everybody, there’s something to please everybody isn’t there.” Chris Higgins: “I’m a scarecrow get me out of here!” Marla: “Another one was just a cross and it said ‘Scarecrow on Holiday’ - or ‘Lilly Cabbage’ and it was a scarecrow with a cabbage for a head!” Chris Higgins: “And the Rocket a couple of years ago, the chap always goes a bit to town with the scarecrows and he had this space rocket, he had some scaffolding around the house and he built this space rocket out of cardboard or whatever and had two astronaut scarecrows with all the gear on sort of walking towards as if they were going enter the rocket, he even had dry ice underneath!” Karen Young: “A lot just depends on the trend of the year, so whatever the trend of the year is this year - you’ll see lots of scarecrows, apart from the nautical ones as well. I know lots of people have been talking about Pirates of Penzance, A Sharks Tale, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, you know the usual ones - but it will be interesting to see what other people come up with. It will be really good, really exciting.” What does the festival mean to the village? Karen Young: “I think it’s great, it is good community spirit, I think the actual festival gives people who don’t necessarily talk to each other, the opportunity to talk to each other. People come onto the green, they come in to the centre of the village, they might be passing each other everyday to and from work and never get the opportunity to stop and socialise. Local residents will comment on each others scarecrows and say ‘hey that’s a good idea’ or ‘I wish I’d thought of that’. It is just a lovely, lovely community feel and it’s lovely to see so many people just walking round smiling, and laughing and commenting that ‘isn’t that clever’ and ‘isn’t that good’. It’s a fun enjoyable atmosphere.” “I think the village is very proud of what they’ve achieved through the scarecrow festival. In 2004 Scarecrow Festival won the best small event of the Year in the Merseyside Tourism Awards - that was a major achievement a great accolade, to go with our green flag! We’ll have to strive further for the Capital of Culture in 2008 to make sure we achieve something along those lines again, it’s great, it’s great.” What sort of things has the festival paid for then?
 | | Wizard of Oz scarecrows. |
Marla: “The scarecrow festival raises money for Thornton Hough Community Trust Ltd, then that pays for things like the village green. We donated some money to the play area, we’ve put picnic benches on the green and litter bins which are very expensive because they have to be shatter proof. We also put in two Victorian lights, we put trees in Smith Hill - Cherry trees, we thatched the pavilion, the ‘Best Kept Village’ sign has been redone, and we’ve given a lot of money to the village hall because that really was going to close down. (The list goes on!) “We’ve also given money to the WI because they have to have a disabled access and hopefully we’ll give them more money this year and then they’ll be able to get it done. So the money is well spent… (and on…) “Oh and we’ve also paid for the war memorial to be refurbished and both the village churches have had money. This year the school is going to have money because it’s their centenary year, so in other words all different parts of the village will get money from the scarecrow festival.” What you need to know - Chris Higgins: “Through the week the village is open to everybody to come and visit, have a walk around and come and admire the scarecrows, it gets busy as time goes on through the week, and during the evenings on Thursday and Friday evening we are trying the encourage people to park in some of the car parks that are available to stop congestion in the village, parking is very difficult so we have a nominal charge for people to park in the carparks which are around the village.” “On the day of the village fete on the Saturday the roads are actually closed in the centre of the village, in the local papers there’s going to be an advert with a map showing which roads are closed, and we just ask people to follow the AA signs to the carparks to try and get people in a smoothly as possible. There is also a bus that goes from the Manor carpark into the centre of the village, and we’re encouraging people to walk around in safety then, because there will be no cars. Remember to pick up a scarecrow trail leaflet and hunt out all the scarecrows!” | 
