Wray is a small village in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England, part of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Wray-with-Botton, in the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster, or simply ''Lancaster'' (), is a non-metropolitan district, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Lancashire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, Lanca ...

district. Wray is the point at which the

River Roeburn The River Roeburn is a river in Lancashire, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands ...

joins the River Hindburn.

Demographics

According to the 2001 census Wray-with-Botton had 521 residents, 269 male, 252 female and 200 homes.

Facilities

The village has a community owned village store, Wray Village Store. The village also has a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, The George and Dragon; a

tearoom A teahouse or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only serve ...

, Bridge House Farm Tearooms; and the Bridge House Bistro. The village also has Greenfoot Garden Centre offering a variety of plants and gifts. Wray has a fibre to the home broadband network maintained by B4RN, a community owned internet service provider. Wray was one of the first villages in the United Kingdom to have a village website . Wray is the

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin that is often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. ...

village of Lancashire, having had a 10 day festival since 1992. Wray is home to the bi-annual "maggot races", which raises money for the North-West Air Ambulance.

History

1967 Wray Flood

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...

on 8 August 1967 of the river Roeburn resulted in the loss of houses, bridges, livestock, vehicles, and personal possessions. Despite the scale of the devastation, no serious injury was done to any residents. The flood is illustrated in the Millennium Mosaic, completed in September 2000, which represents the wind and storm spewing out a great tide of water. The mosaic is in the 'Flood Garden' on Main Street, the site of some of the houses demolished by the flood.

Railway

Wray railway station was between Hornby and Wennington on the

"little" North Western Railway The North Western Railway (NWR) was an early British railway company in the north-west of England. It was commonly known as the "Little" North Western Railway, to distinguish it from the larger London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The was ...

. It opened in 1849 and closed six months later.

Scarecrow Festival

The Scarecrow Festival, established in 1992, takes place every year during the week leading up to

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

when there is a fair. The Festival is organised by a sub-group of the Village Institute who are all volunteers from the village. During the week leading up to May Day there are refreshments served daily in the village institute by local groups raising funds for their causes. A parade of the giant scarecrows is held on the last Saturday afternoon before May Day. Many villagers erect scarecrows outside their homes, often following the theme chosen by the Scarecrow Committee. In 2025 the theme was Circus. Local schools and care homes also build scarecrows. On the Scarecrow parade night the winning scarecrows are awarded prizes. On Easter Monday 2011, the festival's cricket match,

Twicket Twicket (a portmanteau of Twitter and Cricket) was a village cricket match, streamed world-wide on the Internet on Easter Monday, 25 April 2011, with the intention of highlighting the need for high-capacity upstream broadband to enable community ...

, was

live-streamed Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming media, streaming of video or Digital audio, audio in real-time communication, real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature ...

on the internet.

References

External links

Virtual Tour of the Village with panoramas and hundreds of photos, plus video history of the Scarecrow Festival and Wray Fair.

Wray Methodist Church
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Geography of the City of Lancaster Forest of Bowland