Walkington Victorian Hayride 40th Year
It is hard to believe that our very own Victorian Hayride reached its 40th year.
The Victorian Hayride was the idea of Ernie Teal who, all those years ago, wanted to come up with an event to raise money to help in the fight against Cancer. He recalled the days when all the village would turn out, ride on horse drawn hay wagons out into the countryside, to enjoy a village picnic. Ernie decided to recreate those bygone days and, with the help of villagers, and horsemen from around the County, the Walkington Victorian Hayride was born.
The Hayride quickly became a spectacular event with the Sunday parade being the longest procession of horse drawn vehicles on the open road in the Country. Other functions developed around the parade and soon the village enjoyed a week of colourful and fun activities. 2007 was no exception and photographs of the day can be found
here.
Raising money for charity
Over the years the Hayride has raised well in excess of a quarter of a million pounds for the local branches of many, many charities, an astonishing achievement for a village event.
However, it has not just been about raising money as it quickly developed into a village institution bringing together old and new villagers alike. It has been a wonderful informative and educational event bringing history to life for generations of children, and it has been a focal point in the calendar, for the East Riding of Yorkshire, attracting visitors from far afield.
The end of The Hayride?
We are all very proud of the Victorian Hayride and what has been achieved but we do recognise that all good things must, at some point, come to an end.
In the last few years, crowds have dwindled with other events competing with the Hayride for interest and support. The parade itself has become increasingly difficult to pull together as heavy horses are no longer working on farms and insurance restricts many of those left from attending such a public occasion. Despite loyal support from horsemen across the North of England, a procession of heavy horses is no longer easy to arrange.
The Hayride committee have recognised these growing problems and following further discussion with the Horsemen, who continued to offer as much support as they could, a decision had to be made about the future of the Hayride parade in its current format.
The Hayride committee took the decision that the 40th Walkington Victorian Hayride Parade will be the last.
We are all sad to have had to come to this decision but we believed that this glorious event should finish with a bang and we set out to make the Final 40th the biggest and the best and the Villagers of Walkington did so.
Whilst this was the last Victorian Parade as we know it, we still intend that the Garden Party and Barn Dance WILL continue and we have loads of fantastic ideas for a brand new event to support those fabulous village functions.
So…. Let the 40th and Final Walkington Victorian Hayride Parade be a celebration of the hundreds of Hayriders and horsemen who have gone before and let’s look forward to something new for the future.
Niki Henderson, Hayride Publicity (873301)