Thousands raised from North Bradley Primary School scarecrow trail

Feverishly excited youngsters headed to the school, in Church Lane, for the trail, now in its eighth year, before tearing off around the village to find the 43 scarecrows, which had a film characters theme.

Along the way, the trailgoers found an Ironman scarecrow, Cat in the Hat, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Nemo, Top Cat, Indiana Jones and many more creations, all of which were made by locals over the last few weeks.

Whilst people were waiting to head off or after they had finished the trail, the school had a barbecue, refreshments and stalls in the playground and on Saturday evening there was live music to help raise raise nearly £4,000 towards their target.

North Bradley pupil Charlie Wood, eight, said: "The trail was a lot of fun. Some of the scarecrows were really good. My favourite one was the Indiana Jones one, it looked really cool. I like this scarecrow trail a lot. I have done it many times before."

His older sister Louisa, 12, added: "Some trails are really long but this one is a good length. I though Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon was really good."

Year 6 pupil Olivia Bendry, 11, said: "I really liked the Alice in Wonderland scarecrow, it was very detailed. It is nice to go around the village. It is a big community event and it is a lot of fun."

The whole thing was organised by the Friends of North Bradley School, and its chairman Jackie Stocker was delighted with how the weekend was such a success.

"It went really well. A lot of effort is put into this and it paid off. I want to thank everyone for contributing scarecrows, they are fantastic," said Mrs Stocker.

"One woman went all the way to Cornwall to buy a wetsuit to make the Nemo scarecrow, which shows how dedicated people are.

"We are getting closer to our interactive whiteboard goal as we are nearly halfway towards our target and that is only possible thanks to people's support."