Wybunbury Fig Pie Wakes is a scorching success

Thousands of people enjoyed the annual Wybunbury Fig Pie Wakes on one of the hottest days of the year, writes Jonathan White.

The event, organised by the Wybunbury Tower Preservation Trust, dates back at least 200 years.

It stopped in 1920 but was reprised in 1995 when the trust revived it to raise money for the upkeep of the historic leaning tower in the village.

Proceeds from several of the stalls go to village charities and groups.

The fig pies are made from a traditional recipe containing a hard pastry and were rolled from The Swan Inn down Main Road to see how far they would travel.

The honour of rolling the first fig pies was given to BBC children’s television characters Upsy Daisy from ‘In the Night Garden’ and Duggee from ‘Hey Duggee’.

The 3rd annual inter-schools pie rolling race took place between Wybunbury Delves CE Primary School, Bridgemere CE Primary School and Pear Tree Primary School for the ‘Wybunbury Fig Pie Wakes Lewis Crossley Memorial Shield’.

Bridgemere CE Primary School rolled their pie the furthest to win the Shield.

Lewis Crossley died aged seven after battling for two years against T-Cell Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

A charity – Team Lewis Trust – was founded in his memory and is fundraising to support research into the type of leukaemia he fought against. Lewis was a pupil at Wybunbury Delves School.

The Under 10s race was won by Jake Barber who received a cup and voucher.

The Under 16s race was won by Theo Copeland who received a cup and voucher.

The Adult race was won by Darran Hunt, who lives near Wybunbury, with 108.6 metres.

He who won a trophy, a bottle of wine and a large Joseph Heler Cheese.

Mark Walker, chair of Wybunbury Preservation Trust, compered the event and announced the winners of the fig pie races and grand prize raffle.

Wybunbury Tower was open to the public – new bell ringers are welcome every Thursday at 8pm. There was also a grand raffle, various stalls, and refreshments.

The Baker Street Belles and The MicWire Choir sang, and children’s entertainer Professor Lucerne performed Punch & Judy and a magic show by the Tower.

The Swan Inn hosted displays of steam traction engines, vintage cars, and classic European and American cars, along with a children’s fairground ride.

Adam Capper had a rare Saturday free from his wedding video and photography, and was on hand to film the event.

His previous video of the event garnered more than six million views worldwide. View this year’s video on Little Forest Films on Instagram.