Village taken over by scarecrows for bank holiday trail

Loggerheads, near Market Drayton, hosted a community scarecrow trail across the village and a walking market on Sunday.

Fiona Rolfe, one of the organisers, said the event was postponed from 2020 and they hoped to bring some light back to the village after a difficult year and a half.

"Over the past 15 months or so our little parish, like everyone else, has shown that it can rise to challenges we never could have envisaged, nor would ever want to experience again.

"So many sad things have happened, and we all must know someone who has experienced some painful loss and suffered immeasurable heartache.

"What we have seen is a concerted community spirit and effort to come through these difficult times, and to show how we can be resilient."

The committee were going to hold a walking market, similar to the one held in Market Drayton, but wanted to try and do something else that could be held outdoors still.

"It made sense to do both the scarecrow festival and the walking market on the same day to help vendors and allow everyone to have a good time," Fiona said.

"We only started advertising the scarecrow festival six weeks ago but the response was amazing. I have never seen so many people out in the village.

"There were hundreds – we know that because we sold around 100 of the maps for the trail and then people in families and couples and small groups. It was great to see families around the village.

’There is not a lot here and all the residents said it felt like what the village used to be like. It was a really good event and we raised money for community groups.

"The village Co-op judged the scarecrows for the competition and Morrison's in Market Drayton provided prizes. It was just a great atmosphere – there was lots of smiles, laughter and people were really excited.

"One of the local parish councillors did a scarecrow like the farmer from Shaun the Sheep and had their own sheep there in a pen to complete the look. The imagination on some of the entries was just amazing."

Fiona said it was a closely fought competition but the winner was Gill Tellwright's 'Mr Fox'.

Other awards went to: Ellie's 'Hyacinth Bucket' for the Most Humorous; the Best Group of Scarecrows went to the Hugo Way residents – in particular the Wicked Witch of the West; Most Original/Topical went to The Worman family's 'Jimmy the Gingerbread man'.

The Loggerheads Befriender's group's 'Glamorous Gloria' won Best Community Group, and Guess the Name was Martin McGowan's 'José'.