Vintage tractors, pony rides and nine pin bowling all featured at Soudley’s annual fete on Saturday afternoon (July 7), which drew a good crowd, despite clashing with England’s World Cup quarter-final game.

Janet Griffiths, one of the event’s organisers, said: “I think lots of places had the same problem on Saturday in competing with the football. We were really busy until kick-off at 3pm and then it was noticeably quieter, but we still had a very successful afternoon.”

The event featured Soudley school choir, who sang and played the school’s new instruments, Cinderford Artspace, who ran a circus skills workshop for children, and dancers from Cinderford’s CANDI project.

“Forest ukulele group, Ukes uv Azzard played for us, local people brought along vintage tractors and the riding school in Lea offered pony rides. We have our own nine pins, so we also brought those out and a treasure hunt for children proved popular too,” added Janet.

“Chainsaw sculptor Clayton Ryder, who is based at Dean Heritage Centre carved a wonderful wooden sculpture for us to raffle off too, as he’s done for the last few years.

“It was a small group of us who organised the fete and we had 43 volunteers from the community helping out,” said Chris Hawkins, treasurer of Soudley Village Hall. “Despite a poorer turnout due to the football, we raised almost £1,293 for the upkeep of the hall. Annual maintenance costs £8,000 just to keep it ticking over and its used by lots of local groups and classes, as well as by the Forest of Dean Morris men, with local football clubs using the field and other people hiring it out.”

“We’d like to offer our general thanks to the local community for pulling together and making it a success” Janet added. “It was a very, very hot day and we were very grateful to everyone who supplied gazebos that enabled us to survive in the heat.”