A village in West Yorkshire held it's traditional Maypole Festival today 2nd June during the Queens Jubilee. The traditional event held in Barwick-in-Elmet near Leeds, is held once every 3 years and was last held in 2017, but due to the Covid pandemic, it meant the 2020 event had to be cancelled.
The Maypole on Main Street is taken down during the Easter Bank Holiday before, so that it can be repainted. Then during the Maypole Festival, it is carried from a local field by local men around 60m to where it will be lifted into it's base by a crane. Once in position, the hole is then filled in & compacted by local men & women with shovels and a pummel, while other members of public keep hold of the guide ropes to stop the massive structure from falling over & also to keep it level. Later on in the evening as part of tradition, a man from the village is cheered on by crowds of people to freeclimb the 86 foot (26m) Maypole and then spin the Silver Fox on top of the pole. The man who scaled the pole this year was James Brown. It is thought that the village Maypole is the tallest in the UK