HEDDINGTON was invaded by children’s book characters on Sunday as the village pre-school held its second annual scarecrow trail.

Roald Dahl’s BFG, Paddington Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar were all out and about on a specially designed trail which contained 24 scarecrows spread around the village.

John Humphries won best scarecrow of the day with his BFG creation winning £25 prize money which he has donated to the pre-school.

The overall winner of the trail was Kerry Jones from Chippenham who also won £25.

Organised by staff and the committee at the pre-school, around 200 people, approximately double the number the pre-school had last year, entered the competition to name all the scarecrows.

The scarecrow trail has raised more than £1,500 for pre-school funds.

The money will be used to pay for the children’s Christmas trip, and towards the preschool’s outside space as they continue to push for Forest School status.

Leanne Weston, pre-school manager, said they have already received lots of positive feedback from people but was keen to hear from more entrants to improve the event again next year.

She said: “We are looking for feedback from people who came to find out how they heard about the scarecrow trail, what the best bit was, and what could be done next year.

“We were really pleased it was bigger than last year with more entries.

“There were lots of parents and people from the village but also people from the wider community.

“We are really pleased with it being bigger this year and will hopefully make it even better next year.”

As well as the scarecrow trail, there was also entertainment for children with a song and dance routine from Elsa and Anna from Disney’s Frozen, a bouncy castle and a barbecue.