Hay there Georgie boy... A prince pops up at scarecrow festival

The Muston Scarecrow Festival, which takes place near Filey, made a welcome return after being rained off by last year’s poor summer weather. The festival, which runs until Sunday, attracts thousands of people, including overseas visitors.

Creative residents make the scarecrows, which are placed all round the village on pavements and roofs, in gardens and hedges and on open spaces such as the village green and grass verges.

At the last festival in 2011, visitors came face to face with scarecrows of a Dalek, Laurel and Hardy, Bob The Builder, Rupert Murdoch and even Elton John.

This year’s highlights included Gulliver’s Travels, a cricket team playing in the graveyard, the Royal baby, Doctor Who and the Daleks and a “new” village postman and policeman.

The scarecrows can be viewed each day from 9am until 9pm apart from the last day on Sunday, August 4, when it will close at 5pm.

Coun Godfrey Allanson, one of the organisers and the chairman of the Muston Millennium Committee, said: “It is an exceptional community effort to get the village ready and there is always a high level of secrecy surrounding the festival, as villagers keep their plans under-wraps right up until the last minute.

“However, visitors should be prepared for many show-stopping scarecrows.”