Hundreds of people flocked to the annual May Day Celebrations on Eaton Socon Village Green on May 1.

The event, organised by the Eatons Community Association, included traditional may pole dancing by the Heartsease folk dancers, twirling by the Sentinels majorettes, dancing from members of the Langdale Dance Arts and SJ School of Dance, line dancing by St Neots U3A, dancing and singing by Riverside Theatre, and a performances from Jamie Gilman-Lewis and Rumour Has It. There was also a barbecue, stalls and small fairground rides, and refreshments were served at St Mary’s Church.

St Neots mayor, Derek Giles presented the crown and sash to the new May queen Alicia Ferguson who was escorted by her princesses Hollie Evans and Shannon McElhone. Councillor Giles then officially opened the event and the Eatons Community Cup was presented by the May Queen to Jane Gogarty who has played an active role supporting Bushmead School and helped with the Eatons Holiday Scheme. Added to this she ran St Mary’s Church Sunday School for 15 years and was a church warden for six years. She also organise many church events and is now a group leader for St Neots U3A running the Modern Jive Church.

“Jane is a very friendly, enthusiastic, reliable helpful member of the community,” said ESCA’s chairman Sue Jarrett.

“We are delighted to be able to award the Eatons Community Cup to such a hard working person who is always smiling and gives so much to everyone.”

A local history exhibition was held in the church as well as a ‘then and now’ photographic display with scenes of Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford. A second display featured old bottles found on the new Lidl site – with explanations of where they had come from, their approximate age and type of bottle.

A new book, The Eatons Then and Now Book 3, which compliments two earlier books and gives the reader interesting snippets of information about past photographs compared with today’s scenes.

“May Day was once again a great success and everyone enjoyed themselves. We are very pleased to see so many groups involved with this community event and we are all looking forward to next year’s May Day,” added Mrs Jarrett.