World Gravy Wrestling Championships
Grown adults in fancy dress grapple for two minutes in a pool of cold Lancashire gravy on August bank holiday, scored as much on showmanship as on pins, all for the local hospice.
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"More than 70 scarecrows on a single themed trail wind through a Pendle Hill village each August Bank Holiday, with hot food, children's quizzes and a raffle raising funds for the local hall and church."
Higham Scarecrow Festival
"A traditional agricultural show hosted in turn by the farming families of Dunsop Bridge, Newton-in-Bowland and Slaidburn so no two years are the same, set deep in the Forest of Bowland AONB."
Hodder Valley Show
"Two days of countryside life at a Ribble Valley village showground, with Vale of Lune Harriers in the main ring, gundog scurries, birds of prey, horse classes and live music drawing families from across the North West."
Lancashire Game and Country Festival
"A relaxed charity festival run for a historic village institute near Bolton where every artist gives their time free so all the proceeds support the Barlow."
Edgworth Folk Festival
"The Lancashire ploughing society's annual match brings competitors to the Ribble Valley farmland each October where the Bowland fells rise to the north and the fields are some of the oldest continuously ploughed in Lancashire."
Lancashire Ploughing Society Match
"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"The 120th year of this tiny, utterly traditional Lakeland show at the foot of Helvellyn, with open sheepdog trials, foxhound and terrier judging and a fell race while the ancient sound of Cumbrian dialect fills the valley."
Patterdale Dog Day
"Since 1852 the Showfield at Grasmere has hosted Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, fell guides racing, hound trailing and tug-of-war on the August Bank Holiday Sunday, and in 2026 entry is completely free."
Grasmere Sports
"Held on the green beside the River Wharfe since the sixteenth century, with the brutal 1.5 mile dash up Burnsall Fell as its breathless centrepiece."
Burnsall Feast Sports and Classic Fell Race
"Crabs (crab apples, thrown from a cart) in the morning, greasy pole and hound trailing through the day, and in the evening competitors push their faces through a horse collar to achieve the most grotesque expression possible, since 1267."
Egremont Crab Fair and World Gurning Championships
Villagly Award · Best Gurn in the UK ✦ Weird and Wonderful"The fertile Vale of York farmland around Thirsk hosts county ploughing competition each October, where Herriot country's wide fields and the escarpment of the Hambleton Hills rising to the east frame the furrows of competitors who treat the straight line as a matter of personal honour."
North Yorkshire Ploughing Championship
"Two parishes play football across pasture below the castle, the ball piped to the field and won by carrying it home."
Alnwick Shrovetide Football
✦ Weird and Wonderful