Day trip: Marsden Cuckoo Day Festival

Legend has it that the people of Marsden were so keen to keep a cuckoo, which marks the change of season, that they built a wall around it – only for the bird to escape before they could lay the last stone. To mark the tale, the West Yorkshire town, just west of Huddersfield, holds its annual Cuckoo Day Festival each spring. The event, which takes place this weekend, features a Catch the Cuckoo Walk (7pm, meet outside Marsden Mechanics Hall), organised by the National Trust, and a Black Joak Folk Club (8pm, The Band Room), both on the Friday. Saturday’s main event is the Grand Cuckoo Procession (3pm, Wesson Court) through the town, with vintage vehicles, duck racing, a poetry jam, a coconut shy, a ukulele band and may pole dancing among the festival’s other attractions – see the full schedule here. Marsden is around an hour from Manchester by train.

Fri 25 & Sat 26 Apr, Marsden, West Yorkshire, www.facebook.com