Three famous faces have been unveiled as celebrity judges for the World Town Crier Tournament, which brings 25 competitors from across the globe to Chester this September.
Regional TV news legend Lucy Meacock, Coronation Street favourite Ian Puleston-Davies and Cheshire MP Sam Dixon will help crown the winners of the event, co-organised by Marketing Cheshire and Chester Town Crier David Mitchell. Competitors from as far afield as Australia and Canada will take on the UK’s finest loudmouths during a week-long free public event, running September 22–26.
Meacock, who stepped down as ITV Granada Reports’ main news presenter in 2024 after 36 years, said: “Congratulations to everyone who has helped bring this hugely prestigious event to the wonderful city of Chester. I know it will attract lots of interest across the UK and worldwide.”
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The Cheshire-based broadcaster added: “As someone who has spent more than 30 years news-reading for ITV and BBC, I feel I owe a great debt to the newsreaders from yesteryear who started this tradition more than 500 years ago. I’m looking forward to celebrating a fine tradition, although the competition will be tough and the judges will have their work cut out.”
The main contest will be judged in three separate rounds.
Tuesday 22 September – Hometown Cries, Town Hall Square
Thursday 24 September – Retail Cries, Eastgate Square
Saturday 26 September – Accommodation Proclamations, Exchange Square
A non-celebrity panel of published authors, school directors and businesspeople will score on vocal proficiency, confidence, bearing, content and audience engagement, with results kept under wraps until Saturday’s final.
In addition to the main contest, each day a celebrity panel, which will include Lucy and Sam, will share duties over the three days, where each will pick and announce their favourite. Ian will judge across all three days as a regular panellist. Further celebrity judges may yet be announced.
Puleston-Davies, who lives in Hoole and played builder Owen Armstrong in Coronation Street from 2010 to 2015, said: “This is certainly a first for me! I’ve always been fascinated by this wonderful historical tradition. Can’t wait to hear that bell ring and that booming voice proclaim: ‘Oyez’!”
Dixon, the Labour MP for Chester North and Neston, added: “I am very excited to be judging this year’s World Town Crier Tournament held in the wonderful city of Chester. Chester’s town crier tradition stretches all the way back to 1554, making this more than just a competition.
“It’s a living, breathing piece of history playing out on the very streets where Roman soldiers once marched. With contestants coming from eight different countries, this event is shaping up to be a truly memorable and good-humoured celebration in the heart of Chester.”
Marketing Cheshire secured a grant from Airbnb’s Best of British Fund to stage the tournament, the first since 2014, in a city whose Roman walls, architecture, shops and hospitality underpin a regional visitor economy worth £4.3bn and attracting more than 50 million visits a year.
Jamie Christon, chair of Marketing Cheshire and CEO of Chester Zoo, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have Lucy, Ian and Sam take part in a celebrity judging section for the World Town Crier Tournament. With these three names, our regular judges, and our fantastic line-up of participants, we are all set for a show-stopping event that is bound to be great fun for all the family and a chance to shout and showcase the region’s world-class tourism offer.”
Luke Impett, public affairs lead for Airbnb UK, added: “The World Town Crier Tournament is exactly the kind of quintessentially British tradition that the Best of British Fund was created to support — one that draws visitors from around the world and drives real economic benefit for local communities.”
Brexit fans may be disappointed to hear that the term “Oyez,” commonly associated with town criers, derives from French. Yes, that French. It is the third-person plural of the verb “Oyer,” or “hear,” dating to a time when Norman French was the legal language of England, and has absolutely nothing to do with “Oh yes.”
