1: Urchfont’s scarecrow festival was the first in Wiltshire and probably the south of England.

2: The inspiration behind the first first event in the 1990s was a festival in Derbyshire which was mentioned by a friend to villager Jean Thomas, who was in need of a fundraising idea.

3: By 2006, organisers of the ninth Urchfont festival sold 1,800 trail maps as about 6,000 people visited to take part - including a coachload from Hereford!

4: This year’s festival in Urchfont easily exceeded the record set in 2013 of 15,000 visitors.

5: Lacock’s scarecrow festival is now in its 12th year and has raised thousands of pounds for the village school. This year’s trail is on the Bank Holiday weekend, May 24 to 26, and there is a £300 gift voucher for the winner. In 2005 one family was heartbroken when their Angelina Ballerina scarecrow was snatched from their front garden.

6: TV presenter Paul Martin will open the sixth annual Keevil Scarecrow Trail place this weekend. The scarecrows were made by local artists Joanna May and Eleanor O’Brien. The trail will be open from 10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday and there is a £100 prize for the first correct solution drawn.

7: Scarecrow-making workshops take place in Kington Langley each year before the village’s annual scarecrow festival in July.

8: Hilmarton has staged two scarecrow trails in the last two years - this year’s attracted more than 400 people and raised £1,800 for the village pre-school, primary school, church and a fund to help three-year-old Ollie Baker, of Lyneham, to walk.

9: This year's Christian Malford’s scarecrow trail raised more than six times than last time. Committee chairman Laura Sidhu said she was astounded at the growth of the trail, now in its third year, which raised £3,700 compared with £580 last time.

10: Worzel Gummidge - the story of a scarecrow who comes to life - was so popular in the 1979-81 TV series that stars Jon Pertwee and Una Stubbs even filmed a New Zealand follow-up that ran in 1987 and 1989. Ray Bolger played the Scarecrow in the original Wizard of Oz movie.