The Diggle Scarecrow Trail is a popular, annual local event. Over the Easter period, the village of Diggle in Oldham is transformed into a scarecrow habitat! This year was our first time participating in this marvellous event.
The Concept
Local residents in the beautiful village of Diggle, Oldham create wonderful scarecrows. These scarecrows are then placed in various spots in the village. They are found outside of residents’ homes, on park benches, outside of entertainment venues, or outside of local businesses. Participants of the Diggle Scarecrow Trail follow a map in a quest to find all of the scarecrows. They also have to guess and write down on their map who the scarecrows are impersonating. There are also clues on the map to help!
Visitors can then vote for their favourite scarecrows. There are two categories to this competition – a children’s favourite and an adult’s favourite. The owners of the scarecrows with the most votes win a prize.
The 2024 theme was All Things Television and over 30 Scarecrows impersonated some of our favourite characters from the small screen.
The aim of the events, aside from creating fun for the village residents and visitors – is to raise money for Diggle School, the local primary school located in the centre of the village. The event is organised by Friends of Diggle School and they have raised a whopping £4,300 this year from the Scarecrow Trail!
Out time on the Diggle Scarecrow Trail
Parking in the village is limited so we parked at the Saddleworth School as recommended by the event organisers. The car park is located at the start of the trail, so we had fun on the 5-minute walk into the village to purchase a map.
Our favourite of these along the road was Bob the Builder.
Maps can be purchased ahead of time online and collected from various spots in the village. We made our way to one of the village pubs, The Gate Inn. It really doesn’t matter where you begin as the trail forms a circuit around the village.
With our map in hand, we began to tick off the Scarecrows we had already spotted. We then ran into Ant and Dec in the Pub garden.
We followed the trail through the village and through the residential streets.
Some of Our Favourites
I am a huge Star Wars fan, and we were pleased to find Mandalorian with Grogo!
We also found the judges from Strictly Come Dancing! My daughter struggled with this one at first, but the creators of the Scarecrow had added a QR code near their creation. Upon scanning this code, it played the theme song from Strictly! What a creative idea!
My personal favourite of all the Scarecorws was the lads from Phoenix Nights. These were placed outside the ‘Phoenix Club’, or Diggle Band Club! I am sure this display was an incredibly popular one!
To rest her feet, my daughter perched herself on a bench next to Spongebob. She even shared her umbrella with him.
As the trail around the village continued, we found ourselves at a popular local hotspot. Grandpa Greene’s Ice Cream.
We enjoyed a delicious honeycomb ice cream. And Castiel, our puppy loved the cone!
The Diggle Scarecrow Trail takes visitors to some of the most beautiful spots in the valley. We walked along the canal and took in some fresh air.
The Diggle Scarecrow Trail is great for kids (and adults) of all ages. The maps cost £3 each and all proceeds go to a good cause. You can spend as little or as much time on the trail as you like. We didn’t find all the scarecrows but did spend a good 3 hours on our adventure through the village. Parking was free and if it rains, there are plenty of places to head inside.
We are looking forward to visiting Diggle in October for their Halloween Scarecrow Trail!
For a similar post from me, see Chatsworth Country Fair.
