Higham Ferrers to celebrate St George’s Day with inaugural celebration next month
Higham Ferrers is hosting a town-wide event to mark St George’s Day, a celebration that is the first of its kind in the town.
At Saffron Road Recreation Ground on Saturday, April 25, a community event which includes a classic car exhibition, stalls, tombola, cakes, face-painting, a hog-roast, and a tug-of-war competition between two local pubs.
Also on the day, visitors will also be able to have their photographs taken in the stocks, enjoy a horseshoe demonstration by a farrier, and children can take part in a fancy-dress competition, wearing ‘anything medieval’, dressing in costumes such as those worn by kings, queens, dragons or jesters.
The event is being organised by the Higham Ferrers Town Council, with a hope to make the day an annual event on the town’s calendar.
Higham Ferrers Town Clerk, Alicia Schofield said: "“Higham Ferrers has a unique link to St George and it is only fitting that we mark the occasion with a special event, which will become an annual gathering.
“Higham Ferrers has a unique link to St George and it is only fitting that we mark the occasion with a special event, which will become an annual gathering.”
It is believed that Higham Ferrers has a direct historical link to the patron saint of England as, according to research by the town’s tourism committee, it was Higham Ferrers-born Archbishop Henry Chichele who secured St George’s place as the only patron saint of England after the English won the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
The event begins at 1pm with the arrival of ‘a St George lookalike’, followed by the fancy-dress competition at 2pm and the tug-of-war at 2.30pm. A dragon will parade the grounds in between the events, with Beat Route Radio providing a soundtrack to the day throughout the afternoon.