Face off: Egremont hosts World Gurning Championships

  • ITV Border's Alice Neil went to the Crab Fair to meet some of the competitors


Gurning galore in Egremont as the historic market town hosted the 2024 World Championships.

Tommy Mattinson took a record 19th win in the men's competition while defending champion Claire Lister took the women's title.

Gurning has been a tradition in Cumbria for almost eight hundred years and involves putting your head through a horse collar and pulling funny and ugly faces.

Egremont is believed to be the birthplace of the bizarre sport and each year the town hosts the Gurning World Championships.

19-time world champion and world record holder, Tommy Pattinson said: "Crab apple is a very very sour apple.

"The story goes that one of the farmers bit into the crab apple and ended up pulling a face and someone grabbed the horse collar, or a braffin as we know it, and put it around their face to really put a picture frame around it."

The gurning competition is one of the highlights of the annual Egremont Crab Fair.

The fair was granted royal charter in 1267 by Henry III, making it one of the oldest in the world.

Today it is still one of the most anticipated events in the town's calendar.

Callum Scott, chairman of the Egremont Crab Fair said: "Crab Fair is eagerly awaited by the local community, being the oldest fair in the world, granted by royal charter.

"In the lead-up to the fair, right from school children to grandparents, it's looked forward to each year in the calendar.

"It's the biggest event in the town and people come year in, year out to visit the fair."

The event attracts people from near and far, including Rachel Parker who travelled from Australia and said: “I've come especially for the gurning festival which will be here tonight.

"I have been planning on coming here for a few years now, my whole trip is planned around being here for the Crab Fair."

Crab Fair Queen Maisie Turner said: "It was a good feeling to know that you're part of the fair.

"My mum was Crab Fair Queen when she was little and it was just a good feeling."


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