Picnic on The Green – Monday 8th May
Come and join us for a ‘Picnic on the Green’ – a celebration of the Potten End community using the Coronation bank holiday as a good excuse to meet old friends, neighbours, make some new acquaintances, and have some fun.
Here’s what we have planned for you.
From 12pm we’ll lay on tables (bring your own chairs) on The Green opposite the the Village Hall and the Church.
The scouts will be providing a BBQ, and Mabel’s Table will be serving coffee, cake and cookies, Cedar is selling a Coronation Picnic Hamper, but otherwise bring your own food and drink.
Throughout the afternoon there will be children’s entertainment including a teddy zip wire, corn hole game, matchstick game, chocolate and sweet tombola all run by the Brownies and a bouncy castle and inflatable assault course.
Children (or anyone for that matter) can come in fancy dress. There will also be a royal photobooth for those special selfies.
Help create a unique piece of community art starting with outline images of four iconic views from around the parish to be coloured in and lots of white space for you to add your own ideas and sign your name. Thanks to Berkhamsted-resident Debbie Shrimpton Illustrates (who’s art is being promoted by Waitrose, Berkhamsted and appears on the current front cover of Hertfordshire Life) for providing these four fantastic main images.
Debbie will be at the Picnic with fully coloured versions of these and other examples of her work for sale.
At 12:30 and 2pm (or thereabouts) the Aldbury Morris Men will be entertaining us as only “men behaving badly with hankies, sticks, bells and baldrics” can! There will be an opportunity to dance with the Morris men if the fancy takes you.
Between 1pm and 2pm we’ll be holding a welly wanging competition. The full rules of the Welly Wanging Association (yes, it really does exist) may be found here but we’ll be operating under the rules as interpreted by the 1st Potten End Brownies! The world record is just under 210ft – we have the space, do you have the arm …. ?!
At 1:30pm, 2:30pm and 3:30pm we’re running ‘come and try’ maypole dancing sessions – we’ve got a maypole (thanks to Little Gaddesden C of E Primary School for the loan of their maypole) and someone who knows how to use it, now we just need some children who want to give it a go!
Finally at 4pm we hope that everyone will join us for a community photo against the backdrop of the church – thanks to local resident Tony Lewis for arranging this. The pictures will be available to download from Tony’s website after the event.
The photo marks the end of the Picnic, but if you still have any energy left make your way to Spencer Holland Recreation ground where The Plough will be organising:
At 5:30pm an inter-pub tug-of-war competition between The Plough, Martins Pond and Alford Arms.
And at 6:30pm there will be live music until 9:00pm from Odds and Sods.
All of these timings are approximate and we reserve the right to change any and all of this between now and the 8th – or for that matter on the day itself!
Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for their support in putting this event on.
