THE organisers of the Christian Malford Scarecrow Trail have hailed their toy and games through the ages event as their most successful yet.

More than a thousand people flocked to the village to take part in the sixth annual trail over the weekend, which featured 46 scarecrows made by the children at Christian Malford Primary and Acorns preschool and villagers, and organiser Laura Sidhu believes they might have topped last year's collection by £1,000 more.

"It was amazing and the weather was just fantastic," she said. "We sold about 450 trail sheets and most of the people attending were families of four so we definitely had our biggest event yet.

"We had the theme of toys and games through the ages this year and it was really well received. There was only one scarecrow out of 46 that stumped quite a lot of people this weekend but looking through the trail sheets, there are some people who got it right.

"I am pretty sure we have raised over £5,000 so far. We have never gone above £4,500 and actually we are probably nearer to £5,500 at the moment which is fantastic. The money is split between both schools to put towards a project of their choice and it is a good sum of money for them to get their teeth into."

The money from the scarecrows, which focused on timeless classics such as Pop-eye Pirate and Cluedo, will now go towards things such as refreshing the play equipment at the preschool and assisting the Primary School with its outdoor learning project.

The organisers also hope to mark the trail sheets and award the prizes in the next few coming weeks.