Community Picnic 2026 – Save the Date!
Sunday 20th September, 12-3pm. Back for another year is our popular Community Picnic at the Woodhouse Eaves Youth and Community Hall and village green. Open to all; come and bring your own picnic and garden games. There’ll be a craft table for young (and old) to enjoy, music, a raffle and lots of lovely homemade cakes to purchase. As someone at the picnic last year said: “It’s lovely to come to something and just…be.”
Community Picnic 2025 Roundabout Article
Sunday 7th September was the annual Good Neighbour Scheme Community Picnic. Running since 2021 the picnic has become a village calendar staple and is a lovely relaxed event, bringing together all ages of village life for an afternoon of picnicking, chatting with friends and sampling some great bakes from the cake stall.
This year was a little different and we moved the event into the Youth and Community Hall and the new village green and play area, and what a success it was! The space was used to full advantage with people picnicking on the grass, seated on the benches and children inventing running races doing laps of the path! As one couple said “it was a delight to see our new Village Green being enjoyed by so many families”. With cakes, drinks and raffle tickets for sale, the day also raised nearly £250 which goes a long way towards the running costs of the Good Neighbour Scheme for the next year. Our thanks go to the local businesses and friends of the scheme who donated prizes and baked cakes. We couldn’t have done it without you.
It was lovely to see a mix of ages at the Community Picnic too with young and old making the most of the day; whether it was children enjoying the free craft stall, parents chatting or retired folk bringing chairs and picnics and a glass of something cold to while away the afternoon with friends. As one busy Mum told me, it was lovely to come and “just be”. I couldn’t agree more.
And remember; the Good Neighbour Scheme is available to anyone in the parish, if you need help with a small task, getting to an appointment, or would like someone to phone or call round for a chat, please call the scheme on 07561 890 100 and someone will talk you through the details.
Jo Atkinson
Community Picnic 2025
Come and join us for this year’s community picnic on Sunday 7th September, 12pm – 3pm. This popular, free community picnic has been running since 2021 and has become a village calendar staple. It is a lovely relaxed event, bringing together all ages of village life for an afternoon of picnicking, enjoying live music and sampling some great bakes from the cake stall and a fantastic raffle. It’s free to come along, just bring a picnic!
We have a slight change of venue this year, to help the success of the event no matter what the weather! We’ll be using the Woodhouse Eaves Youth and Community Hall and the lovely adjacent new village green and play area.
Community Picnic 2024 – Come rain or shine!
Sunday 15th September 2024 was the annual Good Neighbour Scheme Community Picnic at the Woodhouse Eaves King George V playing field. Running since 2021 the picnic has become a village calendar staple and is a lovely relaxed event, bringing together all ages of village life for an afternoon of picnicking, enjoying live music and sampling some great bakes from the cake stall.
The year, in addition to local busking legend Eddy Hall, we were also treated to the great sounds of Ukuele band, The N’Ukes, who brought a wonderful selection of songs for all to enjoy and a great array of instruments with ukuleles, drumming a washboard and, I think I even heard a kazoo included at one point! Garden games, mini golf, badminton and crafts were available for all to enjoy, making the most of the large amount of space available.
However, I can’t do a write-up about this year’s picnic without also mentioning the weather! Unfortunately, carrying on the theme of a wet summer, September 15th was very damp too and the event had rain for large parts of the afternoon.
None-the-less, as I was attempting to pack up a very wet gazebo and emptying out the water from inside of my picnic hamper my feelings weren’t of the disappointment of the rain, but of pride in my community: I’m thankful for the many helpers that we had throughout the day who worked tirelessly setting up the field, serving drinks, tidying and packing away. Thankful for the families, couples and groups of friends who arrived coats and umbrellas in hand to come to support us. Thankful for the people who saw the advertising, saw the weather forecast and came anyway.
The afternoon reminded me of the strength of community that we have in Woodhouse Eaves and I am so grateful for that. As part of the Good Neighbour Scheme we aim to support our neighbours, provide help and reduce social isolation, and I certainly felt like the recipient of that this year!
– Jo Atkinson
Community Picnic 2023 – Another great success!
The football pitch was filled with over 100 people, picnicking and enjoying a gentle Sunday afternoon with friends and neighbours. Families linked with each other, bought drinks, cakes and raffle tickets. The children enjoyed the messy play area and the games; some games were organised, and others emerged as the children ran around the enormous space having fun together.
Every year the Good Neighbour Scheme picnic is similar to last year, but also different! This year the weather forecast was for thunderstorms at 3.00 pm. We had a few drops of rain about 1.00 and hoped that we had got away with it…but we didn’t! At about 2.15 it rained and umbrellas came out, or people huddled under the marquees… and the children ran around in the rain! Eddy carried on playing his one-man band of hit songs, including those relating to the rain and the sun! People stayed, carried on having fun and the joy of the afternoon continued.
Eddy once again put together a lively play list of songs that everyone could recognise either first time around, or recently. The foot tapping, singing along and moving to his songs was a delight to see from all ages!
The cake stall was very popular as Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eaves showed once again that it is full of great bakers! Thank you so much to all the cooks, your contributions were very much appreciated.
Thank you to the local businesses who donated the very generous raffle prizes including, DeVol, Agora, Apple and Pear, The Pear Tree, Bawdon Lodge Farm and Home of Handmade as well as many individuals.
Thank you to everyone who came, supported and helped to make today work so well. Thank you too to the Parish Council and also to those who gave their time, energy, expertise, everything else and so much more.
The Good Neighbour Scheme Community Picnic is a special moment in the calendar where people get together, have fun and enjoy being part of these amazing villages, whatever the weather!