usf-charity

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival answers for 2026

Mon, 04 May 2026 18:15:51 GMT

Thank you to everyone who visited, took part, and volunteered at the 2026 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival. The entry boxes are now closed.

The answers to this year's MUSICIANS themed festival are below.

If you would like to download the answers to view as a PDF, please click on the images below.

Scarecrow Trail winners 2025

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Wed, 14 May 2025 16:44:46 GMT

The prize draw was held at Urchfont Primary on Friday 9th May, where four pupils randomly chose the winners for each category during their school assembly.

SCARECROW TRAIL MOST CORRECT ANSWERS

Most correct answers winner:
Diane from Market Lavington (drawn from 261 all correct answers).

SCARECROW TRAIL LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

Mark from Calne.

CHILDREN'S QUIZ MOST CORRECT ANSWERS

This year's most correct answers winner is:
Finley from Watford.

CHILDREN'S QUIZ LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

Bethan from Trowbridge.

Well done to all our winners - if you haven't already heard from us, we will be in touch.

If you haven't checked the answers out yet, please click the button below.

Dates announced for 2026 scarecrow festival

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Fri, 09 May 2025 08:50:30 GMT

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 27TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

The event will be held on Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd and Monday 4th of May 2026.

Festival opens at 9:30 am daily and closes at 6 pm (5 pm on Monday).

Programmes will be available at the Festival - there is no need to book.

Note that sunny days and the bank holiday Monday can be very busy so please arrange plenty of time to arrive and do the trail.

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival answers for 2025

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Tue, 06 May 2025 20:17:38 GMT

Thank you to everyone who visited, took part, and volunteered at the 2025 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival. The entry boxes are now closed.

The answers to this year's TITLES-themed festival are below. The Gallery page is now published, and you can view a video of answers with photos on our Facebook and Insta pages.

If you would like to download the answers to view as a PDF, please click on the images below.

Continuing our support of Devizes Opendoors

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:10:33 GMT

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity initially committed to supporting Opendoors in 2024 with a donation of £2,000. We are thrilled to extend this partnership into 2025.

Devizes Opendoors is a local charity supporting those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Four times a week, the Opendoors team offer a cooked meal at Southbroom Centre, Victoria Road. Along with good food and company, there is the chance of a shower, hot drinks and support from staff and volunteers. There are clothes and shoes, toiletries, a mobile phone to use and food donations to take away.

While their guests are there, they can have valuable conversations with trained support workers and volunteers to deal with housing and tenancy issues, financial struggles, access to mental and physical health services, addiction support, and much more.

"Devizes Opendoors is very grateful for the generous donation that the Scarecrow Festival made in 2024 and is delighted that they plan to donate again this year. We help some of the most vulnerable people in our area and we cannot do it without support from the local community, so thank you!"

– Alison Radevsky,
Devizes Opendoors trustee

The Devizes Opendoors team will be hosting a table with activities at Bowdens Green, Urchfont, at the Festival (times to be announced), so please swing by to say hello or visit their website to find out more about what this vital charity does to support vulnerable local people.

Public meeting date announced

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 17:14:04 GMT

7.30 PM, TUESDAY 29 JANUARY, URCHFONT VILLAGE HALL

The Committee will be hosting a public meeting for residents of Urchfont Parish on Tuesday, 28 January at 7.30 pm in Urchfont Village Hall where information on the charity’s finances will be presented and plans for the 2025 festival will be shared. The community will also have the opportunity to ask questions, and light refreshments will be provided. We hope you will join us.

We invite the Urchfont Parish community to stay up to date with the latest festival news by subscribing to our community newsletter.

Grant applications now open for 2025

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:54:14 GMT

Do you have aN URCHFONT PARISH community project that would benefit from Scarecrow Festival funding?

Grant applications for 2025 are now open. End of Grant forms from 2024 Grant recipients are due to be returned by 31 January 2025.

Call for makers

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 15:50:12 GMT

WE ARE NOW INVITING RESIDENTS OF URCHFONT TO APPLY TO BECOME A MAKER FOR THE 2025 URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Information on what's involved and how to put your name down is on our Scarecrow Makers ' page. Please click the link below.

Edit 5/1/25 – We now have over 50 makers signed up so any further applications may be added to a waiting list. Thank you to everyone who applied.

Urchfont newsletter launched

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 15:39:45 GMT

THE Urchfont Scarecrow Festival community newsletter WILL help keep Urchfont Parish residents informed about Festival business throughout the year.

We are inviting all residents of Urchfont Parish to subscribe to the Scarecrow Festival community newsletter, delivering the latest news and updates directly to your inbox. This will assist the organisers in keeping you, the local community, informed about essential information and important deadlines. The inaugural newsletter will be published next weekend, featuring updates on maker applications, grant opportunities, volunteering options, and details about the public meeting scheduled for the New Year.

Rest assured, we promise not to spam you, will never share your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Devizes Opendoors donation

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 16:03:13 GMT

£2,000 DONATION MADE TO DEVIZES OPENDOORS.

This week, we presented Devizes Opendoors with a £2,000 donation. Thank you to the team of volunteers at the charity who showed us around, and to everyone who helps at and visits our festival, raising funds for worthy initiatives like this.

Devizes Opendoors was set up to help people in the Devizes Community Area find solutions to homelessness. It offers support to local people when they are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and benefits local individuals in need, including the marginalised and vulnerable. Along with meals and company, there is the chance of a shower, hot drinks and support from staff and volunteers.

Find out about Devizes Opendoors and the incredible work they do at: devizesopendoors.org.uk

Wiltshire Air Ambulance donation

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 13:26:28 GMT

£6,663 DONATION MADE TO WILTSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE.

Did you know that the Wiltshire Air Ambulance helicopter can fly anywhere in Wiltshire in just 11 minutes? This incredible charity relies on donations from the public and local businesses to raise the vital funds needed.

A group of our trustees and their children were warmly welcomed at the WAA Outmarsh base to present this year's festival donation — a mighty £6,663.43.

THANK YOU to everyone who visited our event and donated in the car park collection buckets.

More rainy day scarecrow activities

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:07:06 GMT

SCARECROW-THEMED DISTRACTIONS FOR THE COLDER MONTHS

If the weather has you and your kids cooped up indoors, we have added some new activity sheet downloads to our scarecrow-themed children's page to help keep your little ones happy and occupied – at least for a little while.

Click below to visit the children's fun activities. Don't forget to photograph or scan completed colouring in pages so we can display in our special Scarecrow Festival Children's Art Gallery . A link to upload is on the colouring-in section. Your child may even receive a special thanks from Eric the Scarecrow himself.

Dates for 2025 festival

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 15:46:39 GMT

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 26TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

The event will be held on Saturday 3rd, Sunday 4th and Monday 5th of May 2025.

Festival opens at 9:30 am daily and closes at 6 pm (5 pm on Monday).

Programmes will be available at the Festival - there is no need to book.

Note that sunny days and the bank holiday Monday can be very busy so please arrange plenty of time to arrive and do the trail.

2024 Scarecrow winners

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sat, 18 May 2024 08:52:17 GMT

Thanks to everyone who voted for the Best Scarecrow Award at the 2024 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival, and congratulations to this year's winners.

56 fantastic entries were created by residents of the parish - each one themed around icons of the silver screen. Visitors to the festival were asked to write the number of their favourite scarecrow on their entry forms and these were counted over the last week. Thank you to everyone who made scarecrows, helping making the festival a hugely popular weekend for thousands of visitors and raise thousands for local charities and organisations.

** DRUMROLL PLEASE **

This year's top three favourite scarecrows, as voted by the public, are:

Scarecrow Trail winners

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Wed, 15 May 2024 19:33:30 GMT

Thousands of programmes and children's quizzes have been marked and we're delighted to announce the best entries and lucky draw winners for the 2024 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival.

SCARECROW TRAIL MOST CORRECT ANSWERS

This year's winners with most correct answers is:

Nicola Davison from Devizes

SCARECROW TRAIL LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

Simon Scott from Bristol

CHILDREN'S QUIZ MOST CORRECT ANSWERS

This year's most correct answers winner is:
Willow and Jonah from Urchfont

CHILDREN'S QUIZ LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

Toby from Market Lavington

Well done to all our winners - if you haven't already heard from us, we will be in touch.

If you haven't checked the answers out yet, please click the button below.

Answers for 2024

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Tue, 07 May 2024 15:00:18 GMT

Thank you to everyone who visited, took part, and volunteered at the 2024 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival. The entry boxes are now closed.

The answers to this year's ICONS OF THE SILVER SCREEN' themed festival are below.

If you would like to download the answers to view as a PDF, please click on the images below.

USF pledges support to Devizes Opendoors

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:04:42 GMT

The upcoming Urchfont Scarecrow Festival, taking place from May 4 to 6, will support Devizes Opendoors along with its regular beneficiaries such as Wiltshire Air Ambulance and local good causes.

In past years, the festival has raised tens of thousands of pounds for regional charity Wiltshire Air Ambulance and over £200,000 for Parish organisations and projects.

Devizes Opendoors was chosen by the festival committee for its proximity to Urchfont and its deep understanding of the widespread impact of the cost of living crisis on individuals. The organisation provides crucial assistance to community members facing or experiencing homelessness, particularly those who are marginalised and vulnerable.

“It's brilliant to be able to partner with Devizes Opendoors in challenging financial times for so many. It’s such a wonderful charity and adding them to our beneficiaries is a fantastic way to celebrate the festival’s silver anniversary.”

Steve Osborne, USFCC Chair

“We are incredibly grateful and proud to have been chosen by the Urchfont Scarecrow Festival, a highlight of the year for families across Wiltshire.” said Karin Cardiff, Chair of Devizes Opendoors.

"As a small local charity, we are entirely reliant on donations to provide our vital services for local vulnerable adults who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. In 2023 we had 250 guests, served nearly 4,000 meals, and contacted agencies 674 times, and without donations like these we would no longer be able to keep the doors open.”

Karin Cardiff, Chair of Devizes Opendoors.

Steve Osborne, Chair of Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity, said “It's brilliant to be able to partner with Devizes Opendoors in challenging financial times for so many. It’s such a wonderful charity and adding them to our beneficiaries is a fantastic way to celebrate the festival’s silver anniversary.”

Give it a grow

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 13:36:53 GMT

With 35 days to the Festival, it’s the perfect time to get planting seedlings if you’d like to donate to the Plant Sale.

Examples of what we’d be grateful to receive: potted specimens from your gardens, vegetable seedlings, baby sunflower plants (ideal for children to plant up) or herbs, house plants and more to sell, with proceeds split evenly between the Festival charity and the Urchfont Garden club.

Plants can be delivered to Hanover House (beside the telephone box) for the sale no later than Friday 3rd May. Please label all plants and state colour and height on flowering items.

For more info click here .

Calling all cake bakers

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 19:20:48 GMT

The Tea Tent needs CAKES – lots of CAKES

Got a sweet tooth and a generous heart? Please bring your delicious baked goods to the Tea Tent by the pond on the Festival Bank Holiday weekend (4-6 May). We'll be there with open arms (and our customers with hungry tummies)!

If you're considering baking for the Tea Tent for the first time and seeking inspiration, it's worth noting that our top-selling items include chocolate, carrot, coffee, and Victoria sponge cakes. However, feel free to bake your signature cake as well. Visitors have consistently raved about our brownies, flapjacks, fruit cake, and lemon drizzle too, and are amazed by the diverse selection.

If you are super efficient, you might like to bake early and freeze your cake.

IMPORTANT:

The Tea Tent team would be grateful if bakers could please consider the following:

All items baked with food intolerances in mind will require an Ingredients Form filled out. This can be downloaded from below.
Please do not pre cut your cake , tray bake, brownies, flapjacks etc. We need to make sure the size we cut the cake matches our set prices.
If you are decorating the top of your cake – please remember that we need to cut it and some toppings (although look amazing) make this tricky.
Please make sure all trays or tins are clearly labelled with a name and telephone number.

The Scarecrow Committee expresses immense gratitude to all our experienced bakers from previous years and hopes you will support us once more this year.

If you are a first time baker this year and have any queries, please contact Claire using the form below.

Museum tent

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 19:03:29 GMT

COMMEMORATING THE 25TH URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

To commemorate the 25th festival, a special sub-committee has been formed to organise a museum tent. This treasure trove of nostalgia can be spotted at our Bowdens campus and is a must-visit for anyone looking to time-travel through the festival's history.

If any villagers have memorabilia from any of the previous festivals, and would be happy to let the organisers borrow them for display over the festival weekend, please get in touch.

As a special treat for the little ones, we are also hosting a free Create Your Own Scarecrow event, every day from 11 am to 4 pm.

Availablity is on an informal first-come, first served basis. The crafting tables will be manned by volunteers who are there to help the children create a small scarecrow from lollipop sticks.

Sponsorship packages

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 17:05:53 GMT

Reach a large audience and support this amazing community initiative with a business sponsorship package.

In 2024, we are celebrating our twenty-fifth anniversary with a range of enhanced activities. We are actively seeking corporate sponsors to support this special event as we strive to deliver yet another amazing festival while continuing our charitable funding.

Find our more on our SPONSOR page.

Volunteers announcement

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 20:27:22 GMT

Can you volunteer some time to the Scarecrow Festival? We are looking for volunteers both new and experienced.

Anyone can volunteer to help. We understand that people have busy lives and many Parishioners host friends and family from outside the area over the festival, so we invite volunteers who can commit to anything from a couple of hours to the whole festival. It all helps.

Please fill in the contact form on our Volunteer page or email us at rota@urchfontscarecrows.co.uk for more information and to let us know you are interested in volunteering.

Grant applications

rab.boyce@losslessmedia.com (Mandy McDougall) — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 21:00:49 GMT

Do you have an URCHFONT PARISH community project that would benefit from Festival funding?

We are now inviting 2023-24 applications. Forms can be downloaded from the website Grants page or collected from the Community Shop.

Makers announcement

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 14:44:48 GMT

WE ARE NOW INVITING RESIDENTS OF URCHFONT TO APPLY TO BECOME A MAKER FOR THE 2024 URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL. PLEASE NOTE YOUR INTEREST BY 22 DECEMBER 2023.

Information on what's involved and how to put your name down is on our Scarecrow Makers ' page. Please click the link below.

Dates for 2024 festival

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 17:56:48 GMT

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 25TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

The event will be held on Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th of May 2024.

Festival opens at 9:30 am daily and closes at 6 pm (5 pm on Monday).

Programmes will be available at the Festival - there is no need to book.

Note that sunny days and the bank holiday Monday can be very busy so please arrange plenty of time to arrive and do the trail.

Diary of a rookie scarecrow maker

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 21:40:11 GMT

First-timers share their Urchfont Scarecrow Festival maker journey – how they made their scarecrow, new friends and enjoyed lots of laughter along the way.

It’s finally dawned on us that we’ve committed to being makers amid getting work done on our house and with working hours that would make Victorians wince. Nervous energy has kicked in. Of course, it’s a fun project - so we shouldn’t worry, but one of us is an over-ambitious designer and the other is an obsessive model-painter so we’re pretty much doomed to over-engineer our idea and take on more than we should. This is our scarecrow diary, warts and all, over the next few months ...

WeekEND one
The concept

We received our scarecrow allocation and it’s not too tricky to make if we are sensible. Which we’re not.

We want to honour the spirit of the festival so recycling and spending as little as possible is the goal. Charity shop visits and begging our neighbours and friends will be a must. However, there’s one key item of clothing that we know needs to be perfect and we just don’t know anyone who’s into bold, gaudy waistcoats. Thankfully, eBay came good.

This is the bit where we indulge our creative sides a little more. The clue for our scarecrow which will feature in the festival programme is “ Colourfully attired Longleat dweller ”. We should have been smart and reined our enthusiasm. Questions like ‘how tall is a full-size giraffe anyway?” and “would it be better to have a lion standing or sitting?” fill our weekend. We tell ourselves we can do this - but know that we can try our best with the limited hours at the weekend we have available.

WeekEND 2
Dressed to impress

We’re on a recce this weekend to the local charity shops for our scarecrow’s clothes. Ours needs trousers and a shirt to match the gaudy colours of the tasteless waistcoat that we managed to win for a steal on eBay. We hope that some of the charity clothing donators of Devizes and surrounding areas are colourblind or eccentric. Indeed some are. In the last shop we found the most vulgar, luminous orange trousers. These, combined with a vivid blue grandfather shirt, will do the job nicely.

Footwear is proving to be slightly more tricky - the plan to pop some brightly coloured velvet loafers on his strawy feet has left us bare-footed. This style of slipper or shoe goes for around £400 a pop – even second hand. No chance! One of our research pics shows him in Jesus sandals, and Mr Maker has a pair from a moment of madness when he thought they’d be a good idea (apologies to the gentlemen of Urchfont who subscribe to this style). We eventually settle on a pair of wellies for ease. Our first and, possibly, only wise choice. His hat was at least simple to source, so that’s his outfit nailed.

We’re agreed that we’d like to build an actual scarecrow that a farmer, with poor taste in fashion, might put up in a field. Definitely using straw, and we like the idea of using crossed poles to support His frame. While at the garden centre, a pile of sacks caught our eye. That little flash of understanding couples have when they think the same thing at the same time lit up the potato aisle, and that’s when we decided on a simple sack cloth face. A lot easier than going full papier-mâché or trying to sculpt.

WeekEND 3
Get stuffed

We’re on a roll and want to keep the momentum going. We do, however, need to have a chat with our neighbour who is about to be dragged into the madness. We looked at the tall laurel hedge on our driveway's boundary… could this be exploited to allow our giraffe to be a long neck and head over the top? To be honest, we had absolutely no idea how we’d manufacture a full-sized giraffe body and actually store it on the run up to the Festival, so this was one of our few moments of sensible thinking. The only stumbling block was whether Mr Neighbour would humour our idea. He’s a firm supporter of the festival who volunteers at the barbecue tent and is involved in other voluntary village projects, so he was more than happy to assist in our venture.

We are all set to start building our chap. The poles for the frame are made from a project that never happened. Our DIY inefficiency has served us well on this job. Sculpting the arms and legs out of old pillows and duvets was easy. Filling the clothes, less so. Anyone who’s ever had a toddler knows what it’s like to have an uncooperative, stiff body, refusing to bend to help you dress them. Mr Scarecrow eventually gave in and we have pleasing legs and arms of which we’re unreasonably proud. I cut a slot into the crotch of the leg-filled trousers (Mr Maker suggests this is probably how serial killers start) and the pole goes in.

We pop everything away for now so Mr Maker can indulge in some sporty telly. I raid the garage for leftover polystyrene packaging to start the giraffe head process. Armed with a large bottle of PVA, pinched from Mr Maker’s hobby area and a bread knife, I glue layers of the polystyrene together for sculpting. There’s something rather satisfying about this process. Two large blocks, roughly the size of a giraffe’s head, are moved through to the conservatory to dry. Random heavy items are placed on top to help the layers bind. Can’t wait to start carving next weekend. Mr Maker suffers the Scotland team getting defeated. Booooo. A successful day otherwise.

WeekEND 4

you’re having a giraffe

It’s Sunday. Still a lot to do and we only have a couple of free hours to indulge our ambitions. Mr Maker has decided to focus on the main scarecrow, and I’m on giraffe head duty - not a term I imagined creeping into my vernacular. The polystyrene blocks appear to be solidly fixed ready to carve. I sketch angles over pictures of giraffe heads (giving the false impression that I know what I’m doing), while Mr Maker plugs in his industrial grade foam cutting hot knife only to discover it isn’t heating up. Bread knife it is then.

The ‘know what I’m doing lines’ have been roughly sketched out onto the sides of the polystyrene and I’m good to go. Except the first cut leaves my knife covered in wet glue. It appears I may have been a little over generous with the PVA and the inner parts are still wet. Undeterred, I crack on despite some blocks slipping around, which made anything resembling accuracy a tad challenging. I ponder whether Michelangelo faced these challenges but decided that it was unlikely he was daft enough to take on sculpting a full-size giraffe with a bread knife, leftover packaging materials and malfunctioning glue.

One head now vaguely resembles an animal. Mr Maker asks if I’ve switched it to an alligator - I waggle the bread knife in his general direction. He wisely retreats and kindly orders a replacement hot knife. Tomorrow, I shall be armed with the right tools for the job, and I shall sculpt like a master.

I pack away the polystyrene cut outs and scrub the PVA off the worktop while Mr Maker grumbles from the conservatory that the handles have fallen off his workbench. This is going to be one of those days. However, he’s created the frame for Mr Scarecrow – a productive afternoon.

WeekEND 5
Pain in the neck

We’re getting used to living within Mr Scarecrow, although it took a week to stop jumping out our skin every time we saw his unfamiliar form standing in our conservatory.

Mr Maker has set himself the mighty task of building the curved giraffe neck. He mutters off to the garage, armed with a printout of how many vertebrae a full-sized adult male giraffe has. I decide to have a go at wrapping the straighter neck. Easy, eh? You’re having a giraffe!

Extra large bubble wrap - check. Duck tape - check. Confidence - hmmm, where did I leave that?

After half an hour wrapping around the neck, May Pole dancer style, the bulk of the neck tapers not too badly and provides a base to pop the chicken wire over. Note for anyone who tries this method - wear gloves when handling chicken wire (as discovered when cutting lemons later - ouch).

Mr Maker appears looking very chuffed with himself. He’s bolted together an anatomically correct curved neck. It’s huge! We cover it with the rest of the bubble wrap, a tad trickier on a large arch, but at least there’s two of us to manoeuvre around the monster. Of course, we run out of chicken wire before it’s fully covered - urgh! A few messages are sent out to local friends begging for leftovers and they come good. The necks are ready for the next stage. Woohoo!

WeekEND 6
getting plastered

It’s the Easter weekend and we have a guest staying with us. Bonus - she’s an interior designer and very crafty. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s working for her keep. We ply her with cocktails and tasty treats, then drop it into the conversation that we might have to squeeze in a couple of hours on our scarecrow project. I mention Modroc (plaster of Paris infused bandages) and, to my delight, she regales us with stories of her advanced higher art project using Modroc. Get in! We didn’t even have to ask - she’s desperate to give us a hand.

So our Easter Sunday is spent getting plastered, literally. Mr Maker manages to get the heads attached and Ms Designer Guest offers to wrap them as they need a little more care and skill than the necks. We fill a bowl with water, trim the Modroc and spend the whole sunny afternoon dipping the bandages and rubbing them onto our giraffes. It’s surprisingly cathartic and, with the help of a few ‘apple juices’, we have so much fun. We end the day pink from the sun (and the ‘juice’). We're terribly proud of ourselves for managing to wrap both giraffe necks that have dried nicely in the warm sun. Mr Maker improvises a tarpaulin tent to cover Geoff and Geraldine (yes, they now have names) and we settle down for a lovely Easter dinner.

WeekENDS 7 to 8
28 litres later

The two giraffes are ready to be ‘dressed’ in scarecrow fur. For this, we’ve opted for a bag of bedding straw - cheap, short straw that should mix nicely with PVA and stick to the plaster giraffes. A couple of old buckets and two big canisters of PVA and we’re off. We quickly realise that the straw sucks up loads of PVA as we mix it and that we’ve massively underestimated the amount of glue we’re going to need. Oops. Mr Maker heads off to the hardware store AGAIN!

We brush glue directly onto the plaster, let it get tacky, then pat the porridgy straw/glue mix onto the form. It sticks well and looks better than we’d hoped. We can only cover the top surface as it slides off if we try to do the sides. This may take longer than anticipated. Oops again! We manage to cover around a quarter of Geraldine (the straight necked giraffe who’s now resident on our dining table) and a fifth of Geoff’s curvy neck outside on our terrace. We let them dry.

Early start on Sunday: Geraldine dries really quickly in the warm conservatory, while Geoff takes a little longer in the cooler garden. I get working on Geraldine and Mr Maker gets stuck into Geoff. Now reader, you may have heard the stereotype about Scots being tight with money... until today I would have argued that it just isn’t true. Except Mr Maker, unbeknown to me, has calculated just how much PVA we’re going to need and has decided to eke it out in his mix - making a much drier compound. *Cue the dramatic music*.

The sun is shining so both giraffes dry quickly - especially Mr Maker's curvy Geoff. Both are ready to be turned by mid-afternoon for the next strips to be added. Geraldine is fine. Geoff makes some unfortunate cracking sounds as he’s turned, and big clumps of the straw fur fall from the plaster. The straw that comes off still feels like soft straw unlike the wetter mixed areas that are rock solid from PVA. I realise exactly what’s happened and groan. This is going to need some serious repair and stronger glue to fix the loose bits. Let’s just say that the attempt at economising led to us breaking the budget on hot glue sticks to sort. Rookie error. We always knew we’d have to learn some things the hard way on our maiden voyage. Another hard lesson is that PVA-covered straw is seriously sharp when dry. Every time we lift the beasts, we get covered in scratches. Long sleeves are a must!

Mr Maker takes on the rest of the straw/fur application himself as my workload won’t allow me to help. The poor soul mixes, applies, mixes, applies and does an amazing job. And it only took 28 litres of PVA.

Other than under the chins and some awkward ear edges, they’re pretty much covered. More hot glue is deployed, lots of tiny fingertip burns are endured, and we’re ready for the mane event (pun intended). We’ve managed to source some cheap grass tassels from EBay. They’re perfect. Armed with the hot glue and crossed fingers, the mane goes on without too much drama, with enough left for eyelashes glued on both beasties. And they’re done. Phew.

FINAL WEEK

last chance saloon

There's less than a week to go and we haven’t even started our lion. I have another heavy work week and have volunteered to help with the festival set up on Friday, so I’ve only an odd hour here and there in the evenings to help. Mr Maker has developed a thousand-yard stare. Meanwhile, a few close neighbours who know what we’re making have said the same thing to us: “Are you making the wifelets?” Oh well, in for a penny…

I purchase some people-shaped lollipop sticks, shredded coloured tissue paper and some organza wired ribbon and dig out some patterned fabric offcuts to glue to paper for their clothing. I spend three hours muttering to myself that I’m a middle-aged woman making 60 bridal dollies. We are gluttons for punishment.

Mr Maker has disappeared into the garage to make his lion. I leave him to it as he seems terribly confident. I’m less convinced. Oh, how wrong I was. Not only did he do his lion-shaped research, he build a two part frame that could be bolted together after the straw fur was applied ro make it easier to move around. He even sourced florist foam to hold the mane and visited a local thatcher to get the long straw required. He’s taking this very seriously indeed. It’s a delight to discover your partner has a hidden talent.

The lion and the wifelets are complete by the Thursday before the festival which just leaves our actual scarecrow to be finished off. So on Thursday night, Mr Maker sits in our kitchen wearing a nylon wig and beard as I trim them to something resembling the right length while trying not to choke on thousands of grey nylon, static-laden threads. Even the dog is coughing. A delivery driver looks through the window and tilts his head like a confused puppy when he sees the bewigged Mr Maker. We stuff his head (scarecrow, not delivery driver) with straw, pop on the wig, and manage to attach the various pieces of our scarecrow together without any drama. Small mercies!

The night before

The giraffes are too cumbersome to leave to the morning of the festival, and we’re not 100% confident how they’re going to be supported or if they’ll even stay up. Mr Maker and Mr Helper head round to our neighbour’s garden with power tools, and various fixings to forge a plan. They walk both rather large giraffe necks along the main road to the other side of the hedge. Urchfont’s rush hour traffic must have been somewhat amused by this strange sight.

I keep well out their way, as I know that any rough handling could break their ears, mane or lashes off - I’ve become rather fond of the beasties. As I peek through the window, I’m delighted to see the curved neck pop over the hedge and, after a wee bit of jiggery-pokery, sit exactly where planned.

Next is the straight neck, which should be a lot easier. Should …

Up it pops from behind the hedge, straight up into the air… and suddenly tilts and falls. I step outside to check all is ok and hear Mr Helper say “is that blood on the giraffe?” Mr Maker replies “yes, mine”. Fortunately, it’s only a graze, but the sharp straw really isn’t nice to catch when your 3-metre long giraffe neck does a Del-boy dive. They soldier on and secure the beasts safely - we really want to avoid the first ever scarecrow death from kamikaze giraffes.

We’re all set for the festival tomorrow.

The FESTIVAL

DAY ONE: It’s 8.30 am and one of our house guests and Mr Maker are wheeling the lion down the drive. Our little part of the village is buzzing with energy - it’s fabulous. The Wurzels are blasting out cheerfully from across the road and I’m blown away by the very clever face in the hole design that goes with its scarecrow. It’s such a lovely, interactive idea and brilliant for family pics. A few doors along, there’s a drummer rocking it and an Amazonian bob-sleigher towering impressively and along again, a fabulous Glastonbury stage. The standard is amazing. The camaraderie even more so.

Our scarecrow gets strapped to the telegraph pole as I stick the wifelets into the grass, and we’re done with minutes to spare.

DAY TWO: Gary makes his debut… Gary, in case you didn’t get to meet him, is a gorilla. Imagine the cheapest, nastiest gorilla costume you can find – but that’s what makes him so amusing. Mr Guest volunteers to do the first shift. We wrap raffia around his ankles, wrists and neck and send him out to sit beside the scarecrow. Still. Very, very still. Mostly.

Mr Guest’s comedy timing is special. I watch the children pat their parents’ arms to tell them that they’re sure the gorilla moved. The parents are focussed on their answer sheet and look up, not convinced at all. That’s when Gary makes his move. The visitors jump, sometimes let out small screams or gasps, and then comes the laughter. Typical – all that time making a mini safari and the gorilla steals the show.

DAY THREE: Our lovely neighbour has offered to do a shift this morning as Gary. He arrives at 11 am and gets gorilla-ed up. What a showman he turns out to be. You can tell he’s loving this role - and kids are getting their photos taken with him. After an hour or so, I check he’s ok and if he wants to come back in. He shakes his gorilla head. I ask again and again. Nope - he’s happy.

There’s no stopping this man. He’s clearly found his happy place and it’s in a gorilla costume making people laugh. He finally comes in after 5 pm - that’s a six-hour shift. He says he’s had the best day ever. We cannot thank him enough.

When we began this journey, our aim was to try to make visitors at the festival smile - especially children. We didn’t expect to find such joy in participation too. The generosity of spirit, kindness, support and positivity of our friends, neighbours and guests have made the process and festival a joy. It’s been a lot of hard work due to our over-ambitious plans and rookie mistakes, but it’s also given us opportunity to get to know loads of villagers better. We thank everyone who helped us. It really was a team effort.

If you’re considering putting your name down to be a first-time maker for the next festival, remember that it doesn’t have to be ambitious, large or complicated.

TL;DR

Makers don't just create scarecrows – the best things made are laughter, stories, friends, and memories.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance donation

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 14:28:36 GMT

£5,500 DONATION MADE TO WILTSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE.

The Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity presented Wiltshire Air Ambulance with a cheque for over £5500 at the end of last week. Thank you to all our visitors for your generous donations at the car parks and throughout the festival.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance were fantastic hosts and talked us through the very important work they do. We are very grateful, (and a little in awe).

Scarecrow Trail entries – winners announcement

Mon, 29 May 2023 09:52:49 GMT

Thousands of programmes and children's quizzes have been marked and we're delighted to announce the best entries and lucky draw winners for the 2023 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival.

SCARECROW TRAIL MOST ANSWERS

This year's winners with most correct answers is:

Helen and Darren Fishlock of Devizes

SCARECROW TRAIL LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

Jean Harkett of Westbury

CHILDREN'S QUIZ MOST CORRECT ANSWERS

This year's most correct answers winner is:
J. Fletcher (child of P. Fletcher) - with a perfect score!

CHILDREN'S QUIZ LUCKY DRAW

This year's lucky dip draw is:

R. Young

Well done to all our winners - if you haven't already heard from us, we will be in touch.

If you haven't checked the answers out yet, please click the button below.

Answers for 2023

Mon, 01 May 2023 18:22:56 GMT

Thank you to everyone who visited, took part, and volunteered at the 2023 Urchfont Scarecrow Festival. The entry boxes are now closed.

The answers to this year's THE WEST COUNTRY' themed festival are below.

If you would like to download the answers to view as a PDF, please click on the images below.

Rainy day scarecrow activities

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:07:27 GMT

SCARECROW-THEMED DISTRACTIONS FROM APRIL SHOWERS

If the rain has you and your little ones cooped up indoors, we have created a scarecrow-themed activity page to help keep children happy and occupied – at least for a little while.

Click below to visit the children's fun activities. Don't forget to photograph or scan completed colouring in pages so we can display in our special Scarecrow Festival Children's Art Gallery. A link to upload is on the colouring-in section. Your child may even receive a special thanks from Eric the Scarecrow himself.

We've frozen our prices

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 20:58:30 GMT

OUR PRICES ARE THE SAME AS LAST YEAR'S.

It’s been a tough few months with price rises everywhere, but the Urchfont Scarecrow Festival understand the importance of an affordable day out with the family.

Programmes with trail map remain at £3.50 for one or £5.00 for two, and the children's quizzes remain at £1.50 each or two for £2.00.

Refreshments have also stayed at last year's prices.

Car parking is free but we welcome donations to Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Collection buckets can be found across the festival.

Happy scarecrowing!

Calling all cake bakers

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 18:46:54 GMT

The Tea Tent needs CAKES – lots of CAKES

We would be very happy to receive any donations of cakes and biscuits which can be brought to the Tea Tent, by the pond, at any time over the Bank Holiday weekend.

If you are thinking of baking for the Tea Tent for the first time and would like some ideas, you may like to know that our best sellers have been chocolate, carrot, coffee and victoria sponge cakes, but do contribute your favourite recipe. Brownies, flapjacks, fruit cake, lemon drizzle – our visitors are always very impressed with the variety.

If you are super efficient, you might like to bake early and freeze your cake.

IMPORTANT:

The Tea Tent team would be grateful if bakers could please consider the following:

All items baked with food intolerances in mind will require an Ingredients Form filled out. This can be downloaded from below.
Please do not pre cut your cake , tray bake, brownies, flapjacks etc. We need to make sure the size we cut the cake matches our set prices.
If you are decorating the top of your cake – please remember that we need to cut it and some toppings (although look amazing) make this tricky.
Please make sure all trays or tins are clearly labelled with a name and telephone number.

The Scarecrow Committee are extremely grateful to all our past seasoned bakers and hope you will feel able to support us again this year.

If you are a first time baker this year and have any queries, please contact Claire Charlesworth using the form below.

50 days to go

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 20:03:25 GMT

THE COUNTDOWN IS OFFICIALLY ON.

Saturday 29th April, Sunday 30th and Monday 1st May 2023

The hugely anticipated return of the Urchfont Scarecrow Festival is nearly here.

With just fifty days to go, the countdown is officially on for Wiltshire's first, biggest and best scarecrow festival. We welcome you to our wonderful little village for what promises to be a perfect family day out.

Eric has had a facelift

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 18:54:15 GMT

You may have noticed that Eric (the Urchfont Scarecrow Festival mascot) has has some work done – well isn't that the case with so many celebrities as they get older? Just as Dorothy stepped into Oz and a world of colour, Eric has followed suit. He also made a few friends along the Urchfont Tarmac Road.

With new technologies at our disposal and, with a committee and group of helpers ready to harness it, we've added loads of new content and images onto the website. We hope this will help villagers, volunteers, and visitors feel better informed and involved in what's going on year-on-year with the Festival.

We recommend you check the News pages for up-to-date information on the Festival, and we also urge our readers to check out the Frequently Asked Questions sections for visitors , villagers , and on volunteering , baking and scarecrow making . We hope that these sections will help provide answers to any questions you may have on the Festival, but we also invite you to use the Contact page to get in touch should you need more information.

We will continue to add more content over time, and welcome feedback on and suggested content for the new site. The brand updates will start being implemented at this year's festival, but you may still see a little of the younger Eric around for a few years.

Volunteers needed

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 17:06:39 GMT

URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL ROTA UPDATE

Thank you to those who have already been in touch to volunteer - we are doing really well - an amazing 508 volunteer hours already covered out of a total of 700; but we still need the following number of hours to be covered over the three days of the festival (29 April – 1 May):

Tea Tent: 24 hours
BBQ: 44 hours
Front of House: 13 hours
Pond Ice Creams: 10 hours
Bowden's Green Ice Cream Cart: 12 hours
Car Park: 72 hours
Top Green Traffic Marshal: 17 hours

If you are able to offer a few hours of your time to help, please get in touch. New volunteers are always welcome! Contact us at using our volunteer form or email hello@urchfontscarecrows.co.uk

Dates for 2024 festival

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 17:15:06 GMT

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 25TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Saturday 4th May, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th May 2024

Festival opens at 9:30am and closes at 6pm (5pm on Monday)

Answers for 2022

Tue, 17 May 2022 11:17:16 GMT

Congratulations to all our winners for 2022.

Scarecrow Trail Winner – £100
Drawn from all the correct programmes

Jenny Oliver, Devizes

Scarecrow Trail Lucky Programme – £100

Drawn from all returned programmes

Lesley Harmes, Chirton

Kids' Quiz – £25 book token

Jarja Olsen

Kids' Lucky Draw – £25 book token

Tracey Smith

If you would like to download the answers to view as a PDF, please click on the images below.

usf-charity

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival answers for 2026

Scarecrow Trail winners 2025

Dates announced for 2026 scarecrow festival

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 27TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival answers for 2025

Continuing our support of Devizes Opendoors

Public meeting date announced

7.30 PM, TUESDAY 29 JANUARY, URCHFONT VILLAGE HALL

Grant applications now open for 2025

Do you have aN URCHFONT PARISH community project that would benefit from Scarecrow Festival funding?

Call for makers

WE ARE NOW INVITING RESIDENTS OF URCHFONT TO APPLY TO BECOME A MAKER FOR THE 2025 URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Urchfont newsletter launched

THE Urchfont Scarecrow Festival community newsletter WILL help keep Urchfont Parish residents informed about Festival business throughout the year.

Devizes Opendoors donation

£2,000 DONATION MADE TO DEVIZES OPENDOORS.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance donation

£6,663 DONATION MADE TO WILTSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE.

More rainy day scarecrow activities

SCARECROW-THEMED DISTRACTIONS FOR THE COLDER MONTHS

Dates for 2025 festival

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 26TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

2024 Scarecrow winners

Scarecrow Trail winners

Answers for 2024

USF pledges support to Devizes Opendoors

Give it a grow

Calling all cake bakers

The Tea Tent needs CAKES – lots of CAKES

Museum tent

COMMEMORATING THE 25TH URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Sponsorship packages

Reach a large audience and support this amazing community initiative with a business sponsorship package.

Volunteers announcement

Can you volunteer some time to the Scarecrow Festival? We are looking for volunteers both new and experienced.

Grant applications

Do you have an URCHFONT PARISH community project that would benefit from Festival funding?

Makers announcement

WE ARE NOW INVITING RESIDENTS OF URCHFONT TO APPLY TO BECOME A MAKER FOR THE 2024 URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL. PLEASE NOTE YOUR INTEREST BY 22 DECEMBER 2023.

Dates for 2024 festival

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 25TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Diary of a rookie scarecrow maker

WeekEND one The concept

WeekEND 2 Dressed to impress

WeekEND 3 Get stuffed

WeekEND 4

you’re having a giraffe

WeekEND 5 Pain in the neck

WeekEND 6 getting plastered

WeekENDS 7 to 8 28 litres later

FINAL WEEK

last chance saloon

The night before

The FESTIVAL

Wiltshire Air Ambulance donation

£5,500 DONATION MADE TO WILTSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE.

Scarecrow Trail entries – winners announcement

Answers for 2023

Rainy day scarecrow activities

SCARECROW-THEMED DISTRACTIONS FROM APRIL SHOWERS

We've frozen our prices

OUR PRICES ARE THE SAME AS LAST YEAR'S.

Calling all cake bakers

The Tea Tent needs CAKES – lots of CAKES

50 days to go

THE COUNTDOWN IS OFFICIALLY ON.

Eric has had a facelift

Volunteers needed

URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL ROTA UPDATE

Dates for 2024 festival

WE'RE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES FOR THE 25TH ANNUAL URCHFONT SCARECROW FESTIVAL.

Answers for 2022

WeekEND one
The concept

WeekEND 2
Dressed to impress

WeekEND 3
Get stuffed

WeekEND 5
Pain in the neck

WeekEND 6
getting plastered

WeekENDS 7 to 8
28 litres later