Jayne and Andrew Cargill interviewed by Ian Reynolds 6 July 2019
We came to Egglescliffe in September 1996 and one our girls was born in November 1998 and the other in December 2000. When the girls were four and two we started to hide some Easter eggs in the garden for a bit of fun and adventure for them. They thought it was fantastic and we extended it out into the Village Green and with other children involved it really took off. We organised the event for eight or nine years. Some of the eggs were ones the children had painted, some were mini eggs and others were boxed Easter eggs. Many were donated from other families wanting to join in and we would end up with a massive number of eggs.
At the time there was a good community with young children in the village and some residents had grandchildren and they would come along as well. It was enjoyable for all generations. To make it more fun, or perhaps challenging, there were clues as to where the eggs might be and the kids had to relate to the clues and then go and find them. Andrew would read out the first clue and the children would charge off to find the eggs. Andrew went out very early on the morning of Easter Sunday, at about 5:30am, to avoid being spotted by any kids and to hide the eggs. He then went home to write out the clues. The eggs were hidden in clumps in places such as the telephone box, which was still functioning at the time, in bushes in people’s gardens, in a couple of places in the farm haystacks, near the war memorial, around the church, in fact all over the village.
Many of the kids had little decorated wicker baskets for the eggs they found. After about an hour everyone would congregate on the Green and as there were always some eggs leftover the surplus eggs were distributed to make it fair on everyone. Cadbury’s Cream Eggs were always very popular. At its peak the event involved 30-40 kids! If the weather was favourable many people stayed on the green and chatted.
The children used to look forward to the egg hunt, it was talked about at their primary school and residents would knock on the door to ask if they could come to the Easter Egg hunt. They all donated eggs for the hunt.
We publicised the event with leaflets around the village which said where and when to meet. On the day we would be on the green and kids would descend on us from all directions. As word spread kids from outside the village also came.
We had loads and loads of fun as a family, they were good years.