Thank you!

On Saturday 4 October, we had another fantastic day of scarecrow fun in Foxton, despite the rather windy weather, which caused a branch to fall and block the road! Thankfully no damage was done. We had around 40 scarecrows dotted around the village, and the creativity once again astounded everyone.   

Our theme this year was ‘In Perfect Harmony’ and as usual there was a fabulous variety of interpretations. We had several Gallagher brothers, including ‘O-Hay-Sis’ and ‘Wonderwall’ (complete with real wall), a couple of Freddie Mercurys, Elton Johns, AC/DC and even Ed Strawman. Sitting outside the White Horse was Dolly Parton and at the Music Barn we found Kenny Rodgers – imaginatively combined as ‘Islands in the (Common) Stream’! 

There were several musicals represented, including The Sound of Music, Joseph, The Lion King, Frozen (‘Let it Crow’, complete with actual snow!) and Mary Poppins.  We even had Barbie and Ken driving in their car. We had some fantastic creations representing children’s songs and books – Incy Wincy spider deciding whether to go up or down the drainpipe, and Tabby McTat, alongside his strumming busker. Then there were all the various musicians – several guitarists, including a bee, a violinist, organist (with a real keyboard!), a drum major and scarecrows playing recorders and even a triangle! Foxton School did a fabulous array of singers and musicians made from wooden spoons and the Pre-school made a beautiful pumpkin patch wedding couple.  We were very impressed that some people had searched for the lyrics ‘In Perfect Harmony’ and found them in two songs: ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ (a scarecrow teacher with a recorder and a globe!) and ‘Combine Harvester’ (our advertising scarecrow at the Mead’s farm). Foxton Singers also picked up this theme with these songs in the church as part of the finale! 

As usual, visitors from far and wide were treated to our popular bacon butties and soup, this time at our new venue, the Music Barn, and delicious home-made cakes at the Village Hall.

We would like to thank all of our fabulous local performers: Scout Watkis, Charlie Arbon, Dan Titus, Unit 4A, The Fig Jam, Royston Town band, Alma (Ceroc), Impromptu, Semitones and the Foxton Singers.

Thanks also to our main sponsor this year, Mission Street at Burlington Park, for their generous donation and use of the car park.

We had two winners this year:

Winner of the judges’ vote: The Lonely Goatherd (The Sound of Music), made by the Reeves family

And winner of the public vote: Thank You for the Music (Abba), made by the Underwood family

Photos of all the scarecrows as well as some of the music venues can be found here.

Congratulations to all the entrants for producing such amazing scarecrows and to the winners of all the various competitions. Many thanks to the Scarecrow Committee (now known as the Scare Crew) and their team of fantastic helpers for all their hard work and enthusiasm. 

The whole event raised a very impressive £4,000 for St Laurence Church, Foxton School and Pre-School. Well done everyone, and thank you!