‘Exstraw-dinary’ versions of Dumbledore and Stephen Hawking at scarecrow event

Straw versions of Dumbledore, Professor Stephen Hawking and Dr Dre have taken over a village in Wiltshire.

Urchfont Scarecrow Festival returned on Saturday with around 55 unique offerings to go with this year’s theme of titles.

Villagers spent hours making “brilliant and artistic” recreations of everything from Professor Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter to Count von Count from Sesame Street to physicist Prof Hawking.

Count von Count from Sesame Street scarecrow (Richard Hawkins/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

Many took a sustainable approach with old curtains used to make the robes worn by the Dumbledore scarecrow, and pieces of straw plaited together to make his hair and beard.

Count von Count’s organ was made using recycled items including carpet tubes and a pallet, and the head for Prof Hawking had previously been Robocop, Sir Cliff Richard and Michael Eavis.

For the Marie Antoinette scarecrow, Parisian grain sacking was used to pay homage to the crop failure that led to the famine which triggered the French Revolution.

Marie Antoinette scarecrow (Richard Hawkins/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

Steve Osborne, 50, chairman of Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity, told the PA news agency: “All of the scarecrows for this year will have some kind of title in them, so they could be a dame, a professor, a doctor, a sir, a princess.

“We have quite a big range – we’ve got Doctor Who, Professor Stephen Hawking, Dame Kelly Holmes and Dr Dre.”

Mr Osborne said the festival committee decided on the theme in September and villagers worked on their scarecrows from December.

Scarecrow versions of Princess Diana and a photographer (Richard Hawkins/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

Each scarecrow comes with a clue so attendees can guess who it is.

Mr Osborne made his own take on rap star Dr Dre this year.

“I used someone else’s scarecrow and adapted it and I’m quite pleased with it overall, but he’s clearly a bit too short for Dr Dre,” he said.

Dr Dre scarecrow (Richard Hawkin/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

“My scarecrow is probably about 5ft, but my children are quite into hip-hop and they thought that was quite a cool one to do.

“My daughter helped to do the face.”

This is the 26th edition of the festival, with some years missed due to events including the Covid pandemic.

Professor Dumbledore scarecrow (Richard Hawkins/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

Previous themes have included icons of the silver screen, to mark the festival’s 25th anniversary last year, as well as occupations and adverts.

Mr Osborne said the quirky event has a “positive” effect on villagers and people further afield.

“The festival’s just grown and grown and grown,” he said.

Professor Stephen Hawking scarecrow (Richard Hawkins/Urchfont Scarecrow Festival Charity/PA)

“It’s such a pleasure going around the festival incognito and listening to people trying to figure out the clues and just getting really positive reactions from them.”

Thousands of people have visited this year’s festival from across Wiltshire, as well as Bristol, the South Coast and London.

Over the years, the event has helped to raise around a quarter of a million pounds for charities including the Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance Charity and Devizes Opendoors, which helps people in the Wiltshire town to find solutions to homelessness.