A procession of 100 tractors and farming vehicles dressed in tinsel and festive lights drove through several Hertfordshire towns. About 1,000 spectators witnessed the Christmas parade of tractors and other farm vehicles pass through Baldock, Letchworth, and Hitchin on Saturday, December 18. The goal is to raise funds for Letchworth’s Garden House Hospice. The gathering was “amazing” and “lifted everyone’s spirits,” according to organizer Richard Hill, an agricultural contractor from St. Ippolyts. He decked out his own tractor with lights and towed a trailer that included a DJ, Santa, and an elf. Hill said the march was organized to improve people’s “mental health” and believed it succeeded as he had seen everyone smiling, laughing, and talking with their friends.

Hill shared he expected only 20 or 30 tractors to participate when he first came up with the idea. However, “every farm in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire sent a tractor or two,” he claimed, along with other vehicles. He said he had the National Farmers Union’s, local companies’, and the council’s support, and all he wanted to do was bring people together. “It was totally amazing. I can’t thank everyone enough. Everyone has gone to town”, said Hill. Carla Pilsworth from Garden House Hospice expresses her amazement and gratitude, and shares that it is “what the community needed.” Photographer Roman Turney from Hitchin stated that it was wonderful to see a parade of vehicles covered in festive lights for a great cause.