We have recently had the Tour de Yorkshire through Pocklington. The church displayed a large yellow jersey from the tower and welcomed everyone to share in refreshments in our cafe church, serving drinks and cakes and scones all day. It was great to see so many people gathering in Pocklington for the cycle past and enjoying the various, activities; also sold £400 worth of cakes!
We also recently held our Flying Man Festival. This is in memory of the Flying Man, Thomas Pelling, who did trapeze walking round the country in the early 1700s and did a performance from the church tower at All Saints Pocklington, sadly falling to his death in April 1733. He is now buried in the churchyard and we celebrate all aspects of flying at the Festival with model aircraft in church, a glider simulator, a large display of the World War 2 airfield which was in Pocklington, birds of prey, children abseil their teddies from the tower, bungy jumping, trampolining, bouncy castles, exhibition of the red kites, an opening concert of music on the theme of flying, and a cafe serving bacon butties, sausage sarnies, cakes galore and for the adventurous guided walks up the 100+ spiral stairs to the top of the church tower to admire the spectacular views. We also have our own branded Flying Man bottled beer and T shirts.
A fantastic weekend of fun bringing together families from around the area in a joyous fun packed weekend. We thank everyone for their hard work and all for the generosity, raising £7500 over the weekend for general church funds, a net amount of £4200. The children alone spent over £1000 on the rides at £4 a go - now that’s a lot of children!
Geoff Hollingsworth
Chair of the Flying Man Festival Committee and Vicar of the Pocklington Group of Churches
