Scything festival at the Wimpole Estate plans to be cut above the rest

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

West County Scything Champion, Simon Damant, due to judge scything competition at Wimpole Estate

The National Trust’s Wimpole Estate near Cambridge is holding a scything festival on Sunday June 28 featuring numerous activities and a scything competition judged by the newly crowned West Country Scything Champion.

Simon Damant, a forester at the Wimpole Estate, is organising the festival after winning the award on June 14 after cutting a five-metre squared piece of grass in under two minutes.

Speaking about the upcoming event he said: “This is the eighth year of the competition and hopefully we will have many participants of all ages. Last year we had a seventy year old lady with the best overall quality of cut, who taught us a thing or two.”

There will be ‘have a go’ scything sessions, a ‘new meets old’ battle between the scythe and the strimmer, before the competition starts on Folly Field at 3pm with both novice and experienced categories.

Scything is considered very good for all the core muscle groups, especially the stomach, and has had something of a revival recently after experienced scythers commented on TV show character Poldark’s inability to use the scythe correctly.

• The scything festival will be taking place at Folly Field at Wimpole Estate on Sunday June 28. The scything competition is due to start at 3pm.
  

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art530073-Scything-festival-at-the-Wimpole-Estate-plans-to-be-cut-above-the-rest