Scarecrows are found among fields across the United Kingdom and Europe. The scarecrow has been part of rural history for a very long time.  The exact beginnings and whereabouts of the scarecrow is unknown but they have existed in one form or another since ancient Egypt.  Before actual scarecrows were used farmers used balloons with eyes painted on them but these were not very successful.

In Medieval Britain scarecrows were originally boys or girls from the village. Known as bird scarers, they patrolled the wheat fields carrying bags of stones. If crows or starlings landed in the fields they would chase them off by waving their arms and throwing the stones at them.

Following the Great Plague in 1348 almost half the people in Britain were wiped out and landowners had difficulty finding enough bird scarers to protect their crops so they filled sacks with straw, carved faces in turnips or gourds, and made scarecrows, fitting them against wooden poles.

Children who survived the plague still worked as bird scarers patrolling the fields but instead of bags of stones they used wooden clappers instead. These made enough noise to scare off whole flocks of birds. Bird scarers continued to work in British fields until the early 1800s but the dawn of factories and mines provided children with better paying jobs but at the expense of their health. In the fields their lungs were filled with fresh air, factory and mine conditions fcaused them to inhale dust and fumes.

Farmers no longer have to rely on home made scarecrows in the fields to protect their crops as they can deploy automatic gas-powered bird scaring machines to do the work for them although these can be rather annoying if you live close by.

When Europeans began to travel across the Atlantic to settle in North America, they took the tradition of the Scarecrow with them and farmers still use scarecrows today all over the world.

Scarecrows have been written about in stories and featured in films. The The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had a scarecrow on his search for brains. Worzel Gummidge was a popular television show about a scarecrow that children loved.  There was nothing frightening about Worzel Gummidge though, in fact he was a very friendly scarecrow.

Now we have the most recent addition to the country calendar, the annual scarecrow festival. The first was held in 1995 when the Suffolk brewery Adnams sponsored a competition.  Since then villages all over the country have latched on to the idea as a fundraising event and to showcase their village at its best.