Great Knaresborough Bed Race
Decorated beds on wheels race through the North Yorkshire market town on the second Saturday in June, crossing the River Nidd in 2026's Swinging Sixties edition, in one of England's most eccentric and joyful annual spectacles.
A cliff-top castle, a spectacular Victorian viaduct framed in the gorge below, a Wednesday street market, three CAMRA-listed pubs and a working high street of independent shops make Knaresborough one of the most complete and rewarding market towns in the north of England.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
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"One of the largest one-day agricultural shows in the North of England, set in the magnificent parkland of Duncombe Park with over 250 trade stands, sheepdog trials, a brass band and a showcase of local livestock and crafts."
Ryedale Show
"Traction engines, showman's engines and road rollers gather above Whitby for a summer rally that ends each Saturday with fireworks over the abbey ruins, in one of the most dramatic settings for any steam event in England."
Whitby Traction Engine Rally
"The beautiful village of Osmotherley above the Vale of Mowbray holds its annual show at Thimbleby each August, a hill-country gathering where the Cleveland Hills form an unbroken skyline above the ring and the sheep and cattle classes are judged with an intimacy impossible in any larger show."
Osmotherley Show
"Ripon celebrates the return of St Wilfrid from Rome in 672 AD with a costumed procession through the city each August Bank Holiday Saturday, a piece of living medieval pageantry that has run continuously for well over a thousand years and remains entirely in the hands of the city's own community."
St Wilfrid Procession
"One of the Vale of York's biggest village shows, handing out more than 120 trophies across livestock, horticulture and a different farm-animal theme each year."
Tockwith Show
"The 225th running: the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society meets in a North York Moors village to weigh berries that have been grown in secret since March, and the champion is measured in drams, not centimetres."
Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Show
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Every first September weekend, the hilltop village of Norland transforms via a self-guided trail through narrow lanes and gardens, with villagers creating hundreds of characters on this year's Sports, Leisure and Games theme, all raising money for local causes."
Norland Scarecrow Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Competitors lob black puddings underarm at a stack of Yorkshire puddings on a plinth, settling an old rivalry."
World Black Pudding Throwing Championships
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Through October and into November, the medieval Rufford Old Hall fills its grounds with scarecrows on a pop stars and music legends theme, making it one of the grandest and longest-running Halloween-season scarecrow trails in England."
Rufford Old Hall Scarecrow Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Competitors race uphill carrying a hundredweight sack of coal to the village maypole every Easter Monday."
World Coal Carrying Championships
✦ Weird and Wonderful"On the last Sunday of June, the Yorkshire Dales village of Upperthong crowns a world champion welly boot thrower: the only official championship for this deeply Yorkshire sport, invented here with a maximum run-up of exactly 42 paces as specified by Douglas Adams."
World Welly Wanging Championship
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Named for the spectral black dog that terrorised St Mary's Church in 1577, this brilliant folklore festival fills the town with art, parade, storytelling and a ritual burning of demons."
Black Shuck Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful