Scarecrow festival in North of Sheffield takes the area by storm

The trail began on February 15 and is taking place across High Green, Ecclesfield and Chapeltown in North Sheffield.

It was set up by Westwood 2015, a small local charity based at the Paces Campus in High Green.

The group help prevent social exclusion and isolation, and offer a number of different activities in the High Green area.

On posters advertising the trail, it states: “Make a scarecrow to put in your windows or garden, be as creative as possible.

“Making a scarecrow provides a fun, hands-on project, and we hope that everyone will enjoy the opportunity to construct their very own original scarecrow.”

Suggested themes for the scarecrows include superheroes, animals, celebrities, Cartoons/ Disney characters or a traditional scarecrow.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers have asked everyone taking part to put their scarecrow either in their garden or in the window.

Charlotte Walton, who works for Westwood, said: “It started from just a little daft our idea of ours that we'll just put some posters up if any is interested.

“Packs went out with scarecrow pictures and how to make your own scarecrow, and then everyone started making them.

“There's been a few pictures that have gone on Facebook showing where they are, and I do keep getting a lot of feedback that it has really made people smile.”

She added: “The kids are enjoying it, I know one little girl her mum has taken her on a walk for the last three days just to find the scarecrows and they’re loving it.

“The scarecrows have taken off more than we thought they would.

“I'm going to say there are around 20 different scarecrows, but then there are loads of others. We've got an Iron man, buzz lightyear, we've got captain Tom, The Queen, a Halloween one and a stormtrooper.”

However, in the last couple of days, Charlotte and her husband Craig have ‘lost a little bit of heart’ after their scarecrow became a victim of vandalism.

She said: “The last two days we've lost a little bit of heart, the scarecrow has been attacked and our door has been egged this morning, but we'll not be defeated.”

Parents across Sheffield have struggled to keep their children entertained during the pandemic, therefore the festival provides members of the community with a fun and creative escape from the outside world.

Charlotte said: “We've not struggled too much to keep the children occupied during the lockdown, but we are quite lucky that we have Westwood that do a lot of brilliant craft packs and we do rocks as well so we go out and hide decorative rocks for people to find.

Over lockdown, Charlotte and Craig Walton have devised other activities to keep the kids entertained, including making a Loche Ness monster out of old car tyres and trolls houses.

Craig said: “We made trolls houses, we’ve painted trees up and people have visited.

“We put letterboxes outside of the trolls houses and the kids have been writing to the trolls, and we’ve replied through email.”