The village of Heather was abuzz with scarecrows once more with the Heather Scarecrow Festival 2024. A host of scarecrows imaginatively and lovingly hand crafted by residents, schools and local businesses made up the trail and created a wonderfully entertaining day out.

Visitors were able to vote for their favourite top three scarecrows and their favourite school’s scarecrow, and there is also a Treasure Hunt to partake in by finding the miniature Sammy Scarecrows dotted around the displays.

HSSP are a proud sponsor of the festival and our entry this year was called ‘On Guard’ with our scarecrow being a soldier standing to attention in full red tunic, ‘bearskin’ and shiny boots!

The votes have been counted and the results are in. This year ‘Crow Fu Panda’ was the visitors’ favourite and took the top spot, with a Harry Potter Themed ‘Platform 9¾’ coming in second, and ‘Compo’ from The Last of the Summer Wine scooping third. They were joined by a gaggle of Minions, a fabulous Monsters Inc door complete with characters, an enormous pink piggy, an army tank incorporating the NATO phonetic alphabet of CROW, and many more.

Our Ros was highly honoured to again be asked to judge The Di Everett Award; for 2024 it was for the ‘Best Set Design’. With clipboard and camera in hand, she set off on his fabulous mission and eventually chose Number 27 – Greatest Showman, as there was not just one scarecrow but multiple ones and when combined with all the themed accessories, they truly made for an amazing display and created a set worthy of the stage.

A huge well done and a thank you to all the creators, organisers and everyone who has been involved, and our congratulations to the winners. It’s a fun day out and the funds raised directly benefit the local community. Why not pop along next year?

By HSSP Architects