The Feast

For hundreds of years The Feast was a traditional village celebration that marked the end of the agricultural year, it was held annually on the nearest Sunday to October 11th. During the Victorian era it became a rare holiday for workers of E & H Roberts Ltd, the iron foundry, which operated 7 days a week. Infamous for being a rather ‘boisterous’ (i.e. drunken) affair towards its end, the Feast ceased during the Great Depression of 1929, the Foundry having closed in 1927.

Deanshanger Village Heritage Society, found mention of the celebration in historical records and decided to resurrect it in 2000 running successfully until 2015. It was held on a Saturday on the Village Green and fast became a major annual event for the village and the South Northamptonshire calendar. Regularly attracting over 2000 people, it united the community and raised money for its main charity The Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance and other local village groups.

In addition to the funfair, stalls, arena games and events a firework display was added in 2006, a spectacular grand finale that rounded out a truly successful day.