High Wych Scarecrow Festival in pictures
Thousands flocked to High Wych at the weekend to see the village's fabulous scarecrow creations, displayed outside houses and on front lawns.
The trail of around 50 straw men, women, animals and others along the main road saw many walking a route they usually only drive.
Nintendo's Mario and a tableau from Disney film Frozen proved popular with little ones, with Elsa taking second place in a competition judged by the public and the village's postman, Ian Brown.
There was everyone from Donald Trump to Dusty Bin, including Boris Johnson, Edina and Patsy from TV's Absolutely Fabulous, Father Ted, a tiki cocktail bar, a straw plane carrying Prince Harry and Meghan, Forkie from Toy Story 4 and astronauts.
First prize went to a magnificent straw Lion King, whose floppy green mane and black heart nose captured the affection of children, who enjoyed clambering all over him.
"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing," said Hazel Maiden, who accepted the prize on behalf of her team, which included Chloe and Rebecca, the children and grandchildren of Lily Mynott, who died recently. "We just did it as a laugh – we never expected to win."
Dawn Ashworth, whose enormous teddy bear sat next to the lion, said that it took 24 hours and six hay bales – sourced from the farm shop in Eastwick – to make, with help from her son Christopher, 27, and nephew Brandon, 23, visiting from Oregon, USA.
"We started on Tuesday and were finished by Wednesday afternoon," she said. "It's nice to see everyone happy and smiling – that's what village life should be."
The scarecrow festival, now in its fourth year, is expected to have raised around £7,000 for St James' Church, which is in need of a new glass and oak door.
Vicar the Rev Wendy Carter hailed the cohesiveness of the festival. "It brings the village community and the church community together," she said.
Organisers picked bicycles as this year's theme, inspired by a display of spray-painted bikes in Norfolk. Brightly-coloured machines bedecked with flowers were set up along the street at the start of the week, signalling to villagers that it was time to put out their scarecrows. The bikes were sold off afterwards to raise funds to make a village sign.
Leanne and Darcy Meadows – soon to be married at the Manor of Groves hotel – came with son Jake, 6, and Ava, 4, from Church Langley. "It's brilliant," said Leanne. "So much effort has gone into it."
The hub of the festival was the church, where other fundraising took place, including a children's build-a-bridge competition raising money for Mencap's Grove Cottage in Bishop's Stortford. The grounds were packed with stalls offering activities such as hula-hooping and selling crafts, barbecued food, tea, coffee and cake.
Organiser Janet Bellingham said that the event was more popular than ever. "It's a difficult time for the country right now – I think people are in need of a bit of light relief."
The Weller family – mum Ria, dad Richard, Harrison, 8, and Neve, 6 – walked from Sawbridgeworth. "The children love it," said Ria. "As we were walking along they'd be saying 'That's where such and such a scarecrow was last year'. It's great for the whole area."