Residents in the village held their eighth Open Gardens Festival including, for the first time, the school garden and attracted more than 600 visitors.

And as usual, the variety of scarecrows on display showed ingenuity and humour. These were definitely not your average Wurzel Gummidge – two, for example, were based on exhausted Great North runners at the end of the run, one of them made by Trish Cole who drew on her experiences as a Great North runner last year.

One scarecrow appeared to have dived head first into the ground so that only his body and legs were showing and another was in a water trough, having been thrown off his horse.

Peter Horn, one of the organisers said: “A new nature and wildlife trail to the river attracted a lot of interest as also did the garden with two llamas and ducks on show.

“It was the first time the school had got involved and it attracted so many visitors that on the second day they had to double their opening time.

“The children showed their raised beds where they’ve planted flowers and vegetables and they also had a display of their paintings. We’re absolutely delighted that they took part and hope they’ll continue to do so.

“When we’ve got everything sorted out we think we’ll have raised more than £4,500 and we’ll donate half the net proceeds to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the other half to local charities.”