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Painter puts village in pole position for parade
Hard-working Alan weathers the storms as an old ceremony is set to make a comeback
By Howard Williamson
PAINTING the Barwick-in-Elmet maypole was as hard as it gets for local pensioner Alan King.
He set aside a month for the task but did not plan for weather more suited to March than May.
The 72-year-old former sales manager said: "It was harder than I expected and I reckon I have spent 170 hours on planing, sanding and then painting the 86ft pole.
"It was quite tiring and I'm not getting any younger. Frost made it hard for the paint to set and I was caught in hail storms three times. There is no shelter in the field where I worked and at times it was like a wind tunnel.
"But it's finished now and the pole looks nice in red and blue paint."
Alan, of Leeds Road, moved to Barwick in 1964 and began helping the maypole committee two years later. He became apprentice to the former maypole painter, John Leek, from whom he took over in 1991.
Parade
The maypole ceremony will be revived on Monday after a gap of six years.
The pole will be raised by volunteers at 11am. At 1pm there will be a parade through the village led by May queen Madelaine Cornforth, 13, who will ride on a decorated farm cart pulled by a tractor. The parade will also include vintage tractors.
The Lady Mayoress of Leeds, Mrs Pat Hyde, will crown the queen by 2.15pm, and at 2.30 schoolchildren will dance around a smaller replica pole.
At 4pm garlands will be raised on the big pole and a volunteer will shin up it to spin the weather vane at the top.
Car parking will be available in Jack Heap's Field - a short walk from The Cross where the maypole will be raised - and from Hall Tower Field, where there will be dancing.
More than 250 people have asked to place their names and brief messages in a time capsule to be buried next to the maypole base.
"We will leave instructions that it should not be opened until May 31, 2056," said Nigel Trotter, chairman of the maypole trust.
howard.williamson@ypn.co.uk
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
