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Rock stars and royalty all turn out for popular scarecrow festival

Residents in Mow Cop and surrounding areas are taking part

Members of the Royal family, rock stars, and even the Prime Minister have pitched up in one village - as a scarecrow festival returns. Talented residents in Mow Cop, Harriseahead, Mount Pleasant, Dales Green, and Scholar Green, have been busy creating effigies of a range of well-known individuals for the event.

There are 33 dotted around the neighbourhoods - with Kidsgrove Town Council primed to hand out prizes and a trophy. And cash raised from the 'Mow Cop Scarecrow Festival' will go to charity.

Previous themes have included the NHS and World War Two with this year's version being 'Royals and England'. Families have been busy making scarecrows including versions of members of the Royal family along with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and rock stars Freddie Mercury and Lemmy from Motorhead.

READ: 12 photographs of this year's Mow Cop Scarecrow Festival

Organiser Claire Jepson, of Harriseahead, who kick-started it during lockdown, said: We do a different theme every year. We put it to a vote on Facebook and this year they voted for Royals and anything to do with England. We did the vote in February so people could have time to make the scarecrows.

In the beginning it was really just to get people doing something as we couldn't do a lot. When people could go out and walk around we created a map.

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Lemmy from Motorhead(Image: Pete Stonier / Stoke Sentinel)

For the first year, I did posters and a leaflet drop to about 50 houses. We are only a little village, I never wanted it to be huge. I created a Facebook page and most of it goes through there. I just put out a post saying 'whos interested in doing a scarecrow this year?' and it went from there."

It's 5 to enter and a map detailing where all the locations of the scarecrows are can be found at Castle Stores on Mow Cop Road. The maps are 50p or a donation. Some people start there but you can start anywhere, its not a straight line. said Claire. The money goes to the Veterans Support Centre Group, they are building a retreat for veterans and people with PTSD.

While it's all for a good cause - those taking part do take it seriously and are keen to showcase their creativity. Claire said: "Last year we had a whole Spitfire made out of just straw and chicken wire!"

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