Reigate – Well and Truly Pillaged
Ghoulies & ghosties, witches, Batman, Spiderman, werewolves and pumpkins were all to be seen ‘pillaging’ Reigate Town Centre at the weekend.
The sun came out on Saturday (1st Nov) to welcome everyone coming into town to celebrate Reigate Hallowmas and to #PillagetheVillage.
Hundreds of families descended on Cullenders in Bell Street and COOK in the High Street to pick up their bags and donate food items for the local foodbank Loveworks. It proved so popular that they ran out of the bags supplied and had to use some of their own.
Shops & businesses had balloons festooned outside and treats inside for the little ones. Fat Face had a Halloween hunt inside their store which was a big hit.
What a fantastic day and of course a big thank you goes to all the shops & businesses who joined in and for being so generous with all their ‘treats’. Gerrards in the High Street went through seven…yes SEVEN tins of sweets.
The donations to Loveworks has been astonishingly generous with over 60 full to the brim shopping bags & crates. Loveworks are currently sorting through the donations and will share images of the final haul and number of items donated once this has been done.
Some lovely comments from families who took part:
“Thanks for the trick or treating this morning, the kids had a great time and it was a lovely way to contribute to the food bank. Hope the shop keepers thought it was worthwhile too!”
“What a successful event! My little man (2.5 years old) loved saying BOO in the shops in exchange for a sweetie. It was so busy some shops we visited ran out (at 11:45!). We bought some lovely steaks from the butcher (which we hadn’t visited before), and some stuff from Cook (what a treat!). Thanks for organising a brilliant event. Already looking forward to next year!!”
”Just to say my girls had a great time earlier and a special shout out to the ladies in The Lemon Tree shop my little girl got alittle upset as she was offered chocolate and has multiple food allergies dairy included so we couldn’t accept the chocolate as it could put in her hospital so they kindly gave her alittle gift instead it was much appreciated and a kind thought”
“Thank you for a fab day. The kids worn out…yay. We have never really walked around Reigate before and I have been in some fab shops today without the kids moaning.”
“Pass on my thanks too. My daughter also enjoyed and I got to window shop. Need to go back on my own now. It was such a lovely afternoon.”
Looking forward to organising next years ‘pillage the village’ and Reigate Hallowmas fun. Bigger & better. Pumpkin carving competitions, stocks, gruesome games, street entertainers…sounds good huh?
Hope to see you all next year and make Reigate the place to go on Halloween. #ReigateHallowmas #PillagetheVillage.
Until next year! In the meantime, check out the gallery below and video.
Reigate Hallowmas – Pillage the Village Gallery
Vloggers, The Saccone Joly’s (Jonathan Joly and his wife Anna Saccone) who live nearby came to #PillagetheVillage with their two children. Here’s the video they filmed which is up on their YouTube channel. Watch from about 4mins 30secs in.
