Scarecrow festival success

More than 250 houses and local community groups displayed different scarecrows themes ranging from the Beatles on Abbey Road, Formula One to Robin Hood and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.

One of the organisers Cheryl Jackson, said: “The standard was really high this year.

“Creative ideas, themed cul-de-sacs, very current and relevant displays.

“The committee favourite was Peter Rabbit on Church Lane, the detail and attention was tremendous.”

Croston Lane stole the show and was the winner, followed by the giant Superman on Church Fold and also taking a place on the podium was Dumbo on Chorley Lane.

More than 70 members of the public voted.

Cheryl praised the efforts of Croston Lane. She added: “They work together down that lane to create a theme and decorate the whole area with scarecrows and props (again see pics) months and months of planning go into it and it had a Willy Wonka theme.

A new committee was formed for this year and its been given a new lease of life. The only reason it works so well is because there is a very strong community spirit in the village and there are a lot of people that work very hard to make the village as lovely as it is.

“This year we have had the church selling refreshments, pies cakes, drinks etc, as well as stalls and tombolas.

“The school had a fairground and donkey rides on the field. It’s a massive fundraiser for these venues. It was so busy on Saturday that school had run out of goods for the stalls for Sunday.”

Organisers say thousands of people have come from across the North West to attend the event and look at the displays.

Cheryl said: “In Charnock Richard we are lucky to have so many people that are prepared to go above and beyond throughout the year to make these community events happen.

“We have welcomed thousands of visitors to our wonderful little village and shown them not only what a great place this is to live but what can be achieved when people work together.”