THE winners of this year’s Blackrod Scarecrow Festival photograph competition have been announced.

The prestigious awards are handed put each year following the village’s flagship event.

Aspiring snappers are asked to try to capture the essence of the day with a single shot and their reward is to see their picture adorned on publicity and adverts for the next year’s event, which will take place on July 4 and 5.

This year the two winners were Brian Dean for the adult category and Adam Howard in the junior section.

The triumphant photographers were presented with vouchers for Mathers Photographic in Bolton Town Centre by the Mayor of Blackrod Cllr Beryl Monaghan.

After his photograph of a guitar-playing scarecrow scooped the top prize, Mr Dean said: “I am so thrilled to have won the competition.

“Well done to Adam Howard for winning the junior competition and thanks to Mark Power for judging all the photos and to the marvellous Jean Hibbert and everyone else who makes the festival a special day in our village.”

Mrs Hibbert, who organizes the event each year, said: “Many congratulations to the two winners and thanks to all who came along and supported the event — we hope to see you again next year.”

The Blackrod Scarecrow festival is the village’s showpiece community event and sees hundreds of people flock to the area every year.

The popular festival will be heading into its 9th year next July and organizers will begin planning the event several months beforehand.

Each year scores of Blackrod residents get their creative caps on to come up with ideas for the most unique scarecrow models to make, which are then placed at different areas of the village.

It is also a tradition for a scarecrow doppelganger of the Mayor of Blackrod to be created and positioned outside the village library.