Selby: Burn fundraises for Ukraine at Coronation Big Lunch

More than 150 people gathered in The Wheatsheaf pub car park in Burn, near Selby, to celebrate King Charles III’s coronation at the village’s 12th annual Big Lunch.

Burn residents celebrate the Coronation Big Lunch (Image: Sonia Hearld)

The Big Lunch initiative was started by the Eden Project in Cornwall, to encourage neighbours to get together for fun and charity - and this year, Burn fundraised for Ukraine.

Read Next:

• Coronation Day babies at York Hospital wear knitted crowns
• Long Boi: Doe Bakehouse creates donut for missing York duck
• Northern Lights spotted in Scarborough in rare May sighting

Andy and Denise Ware with their coronation coach (Image: Sonia Hearld)

Despite Burn only having around 200 households, the event is possibly one of the longest running Big Lunches in the country, the first being in 2009, and only cancelling in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.

It returned to the village in 2022 with 230 guests for the late Queen's Jubilee.

Burn residents celebrating the Coronation Big Lunch (Image: Sonia Hearld)

Parish Council chairman, Chris Phillipson, said: "Burn has done it again. The turnout for a village this size, with only one pub, one chapel and no school or shops, was amazing.

"And to raise that amount for Ukraine is incredible. It shows there is a true community spirit."

Wheatsheaf Burn landlords Andy & Jo dish up the BBQ (Image: Sonia Hearld)

The event included a quiz, a picture treasure hunt, street games for the children, a ‘throne’ photo booth, and two Coronation cakes.

The pub served up a BBQ, and bread buns were donated by Morrisons, and trestles for tables were loaned by local firm Fairfax.

Some interesting decorations were placed around the village, including a full-size golden coach and horses, complete with a life-size King Charles and Queen Camilla, footmen, and outriders.