A feast of fun as Pool revives an old tradition

Around 400 people are thought to have joined in the festivities on Sunday, ranging from a five-a-side football tournament to a bonny baby competition and music provided by a jazz quartet.

The Feast was also organised as a village celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee, and a songs of praise service took place in Pool Village Hall at the end of the afternoon.

Organisers are already declaring it a success, and will meet soon to discuss if they are to hold it again next year. Other events had been organised in the village in the past, but no summer spectacular has taken place for several years.

Feast committee chairman Richard Downes, a Manor Gardens resident, said he would like to see the feast re-established in Pool's calendar.

He said: "It was a great success, I've had nothing but positive feedback. The area that we used was packed, and I think it was the success I was hoping it would be, but didn't actually believe it would be."

Mr Downes found other volunteers willing to set up an organising committee, and he said he was pleasantly surprised to see so many people had come to the event.

The history of the Pool Feast can be traced back to 1749, when an annual payment known as the Pool Doles was given to the poor people of the village. The feast took place in July, and in 1794, it was recorded that the Curate of Pool was entitled to his annual pay of five shillings a year, for preaching a sermon on Pool Feast Sunday.

Among the more eventful feasts recorded, was a disturbance in 1847, in which railway construction workers were involved in fights in both the Half Moon Inn and the White Hart.

Further records tell of a Pool Feast taking place up until the First World War.

Mr Downes feels community spirit may be sufficiently alive and well in pool to continue the event - he and the other organisers found that visitors even took away their own litter after the event.