Tractor-tastic at Woodland festive Farmer Christmas event in County Durham!

A cavalcade of festively-furnished farm vehicles wound its way around rural roads in the Gaunless Valley and surrounding communities for the ‘Farmer Christmas’ event 2024.

About 100 brightly decorated tractors of all sizes featured in the run, driven by an assortment of Father Christmas farmers, “reindeer” and even the odd Grinch.

They wound their way from the start, at Tile Sheds Farm, in Woodland, over a seven to eight-mile route also taking in Copley, Fellside and Hamsterley Village.

(Image: Sarah Caldecott) All the drivers were festively-fed at Tile Sheds Farm, before safely parking up their vehicles and enjoying some post-event revelry at The Edge Hotel, in Woodland, courtesy of mein-hostess Fiona Coatsworth.

(Image: Sarah Caldecott) The brainchild of Becky Lands, at Tile Sheds Farm, the event has risen rapidly in popularity since its inception in 2021, following the restrictions of the Covid crisis, and in the immediate aftermath of Storm Arwen.

(Image: Sarah Caldecott) “People had been lonely and we felt we needed something to cheer them up and we had about 20 tractors that year.

“We then rose to nearly 70 and then 83, but to have about 100 is mind-blowing.

“We had them coming in from Upper Teesdale and Weardale and from all the local villages, but even from over at Northallerton.”

(Image: Hannah Chapman) She said the event was blessed by the weather gods, following the issues caused by Storm Darragh only seven days earlier.

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The tractor run was preceded by a Christmas Fayre at the farm, jointly staged by Ms Lands and Woodland Community Group.

Among the beneficiaries will be Cockfield Primary School, to support its Kitcar drive, and four or five other local good causes.

* Meanwhile, a similar parade of festive farm vehicles lit up the High Street in Northallerton to bring some early Christmas cheer to townsfolk this evening.