Results of the 2025 Haddenham Scarecrow Festival
The Haddenham Scarecrow Festival has become a much-loved annual summer tradition, and 2025 was extra special as we celebrated our 10th Anniversary. Residents, community groups and local businesses collectively created a fantastic display of creativity, many of them based on this year's theme of "Strength and Hope".
There were 108 entries which is the highest number since the record-breaking lockdown Festival of 2020. They were spread throughout the village including on all the new housing developments. After a wet start, the weather has been glorious and it's been lovely to see people walking around Haddenham, map in hand, enjoying the scarecrows.
We are very grateful for donations made so far in support of this year's chosen charities: Aylesbury Vale Prostate Cancer Support Group and Cancer Care and Haematology Unit (CCHU) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. We will continue to welcome donations for the next two weeks and will announce the total raised in mid-July. If you have not yet had an opportunity to do so, donations can be made online here
Although not organised as a competition, people are invited to vote for their three favourites. We received an awesome total of 560 votes which have been very carefully counted and verified. The three most popular scarecrows have each received Afternoon Tea for Two vouchers donated by Haddenham Garden Centre, a Bottle of Prosecco donated by Harpers Estate Agents who sponsored the 2024 Map, a bottle of wine donated by Haddenham Park Care Home and a box of chocolates from the Scout & Guide Association. Here are the results:
1st Favourite – The Greatest Show by the McCarron Family
Tom and Gary explained: It was very much a family effort with Tom (Daddy and Ringmaster) helping to bring "a million dreams" of Daisy and Isla (Acrobats) to life.
Father and Son relations may have walked a "tightrope" during construction, which took about 3 weeks, although it felt like much longer! The pleasure taken from your comments and enjoyment made it "the greatest show". It's great to see Haddenham "come alive" each year with scarecrows, "the other side" of which is all the hard work Fran puts in behind the scenes to organise this village event, which is a great success year after year. Our thanks are "never enough". The real winners of the scarecrow festival are the charities which all this is in aid of.
"This is me" wishing you all the best of luck for next year!!
2nd Favourite – Let's Go Fly a Kite by Stephanie Moore
Stephanie told me: "Each year one of my grandchildren gets to choose the theme of our entry for the Scarecrow Festival. This year it was Ned's turn but at 17 months old he was a little young to have a favourite character. Instead, his mum got to choose. Mary Poppins was her favourite film when she was young, so it had to be this one, and she still enjoys flying kites with her 2 sons!
3rd Favourite -Elphaba and Glinda by Laura, Chris and girls
Laura said: The girls love helping me to create our scarecrows each year and they were so happy to hear we placed 3rd in this year's festival! We started many years ago with Peppa Pig and this year we came up with the idea of Elphaba and Glinda from the film, Wicked. A special mention to my husband for installing a motion sensor to play Defying Gravity whenever anyone walked past! Watch out as Elphaba & Glinda may reappear this Halloween just before the second film launches.....
We do not ask people to choose their 4th Favourite, but as the votes were incredibly close and they so narrowly missed out being in the Top 3, I felt they deserved a special mention and a runner up prize.
4th Favourite – Shrek's Swamp by Max Browne
The Browne family entered this year's Festival for the first time. Shrek was made by their son Max who told me "I chose Shrek to brighten up everyone's day and put smiles on people's faces".
Including the four above, the Top 20 Favourites were as follows:
5th – Where's my sock gone? by Domestic Services
6th – Flower Girl Meets Boy by Swenglish
7th – Red Kite Radi-Crow by Cherry Waller
8th – Tiny Capes, Heroes in Training by CHUF Preschool
9th – Dave's Web Returns by The Fisher Family
10th – Holey Moley! By Karen and Steve Bentley
11th – Mary Poppins by Childsplay Childcare
12th – Edward Scissorhands by Focus Hairdressing
13th – Spongebob Squarepants by The Walkers
14th (jt) – Frances the Mermaid by the Hoy Family & Sausage Pots by Rachel
15th (jt) – Sheerstock Sparklewood by Fairy Magic & Weightlifting Wilma by the Hargrave/Perkins Family
16th (jt) – Ding-dong the Witch(ert) is Dead by the Bunn Turner Family and Mr & Mrs by Crafty Tech Ingenious Machine Developers
17th (jt) – Derek by Michael and Patricia Bratby & Supermouse by The Youngs
18th – The Scarecrows Wedding by Natalie Wrench, Celebrant
19th (jt) – Live Aid 40 by The Lewis Family & Hayleigh Raindrift, Gardian of the Silver Showers by Eleanor and Georgina Parker
20th (jt) – Sir Stanbridge to the Rescue by the Parsons Family & Contender.....Ready by The Taylors
Other entries receiving multiple votes included: Captain Haddenham, Spots the Ladybug, the Incredible Hope, Lady Lottie Dotty Bug, We can but hope, Paddington in Peru, Oz, HAD-209, Beavers on the Loose numbers 42 and 58. Of course it's not all about votes.
Every single entry is valued, created with care, humour, community spirit and brings so much joy to our village for three weeks.
THANK YOU to everyone for taking part. All entrants will receive a personalised Certificate of Participation in the next couple of weeks.
Haddenham Scarecrow Festival was set up by the Haddenham Association of Scouts and Guides in 2016 partly as a fundraising community event, but also to raise the profile of Scouting and Guiding in the village. We are delighted that all the children's units are busy and running successfully. New adult volunteers are always welcome, please get in touch if you can help. On behalf of the Haddenham Association of Scouts and Guides, I would like to say a special thank you to:
€ Everyone who donated to our causes. We will continue to welcome donations for another week and will announce total funds raised towards the end of July.
€ Michael Ball for creating a brand new Map from scratch to include Haddenham's new roads and for his technical expertise and support.
€ Harpers Estate Agents, Haddenham Garden Centre and Haddenham Park Care Home for donating prizes and selling Maps (sponsored by Harpers). Also, thanks to Blooming Fruity, Helen Lewis and Haddenham Library for selling Maps.
€ Keith at Haddenham.net for his help with promotion, putting the Map and list online and assembling the Gallery of photos.
€ Members of the Association for manning fundraising stalls at Maypole, Haddenham Fete, Haddenham Garden Centre and the Netball Tournament
I'm looking forward to next year's Festival already!
Francesca Flaxton
Brownie Guider and Member of Haddenham Association of Scouts and Guides
2nd July 2025
