Spooky display to raise charity cash

The Charltons of Gallow Tree Road, Brecks, spend weeks each year crafting a spooky display for their garden, raising hundreds of pounds for cancer charities.

This year’s grim tableau will go up for one night only next Monday - but the Advertiser got a sneak preview this week.

It features a field of corn and more than 80 pumpkins - one monster weighing over 300lbs - grown by green-fingered dad Glenn (57).

He and mum Linda (55) encouraged daughter Lauren (25) and her brother Dean (28) to get crafty as children - and it paid off with both going on to study fine arts at university.

Lauren (pictured) said: “We’ve done it since we were young, but it’s been a really big event for the last seven years. 

“Dad used to make us things like goblins and spiders - we started helping out as we got older.

“Hallowe’en is just a family thing we have always done.”

The Charltons’ annual event raises around £600 a year - the family, their friends and relatives have already raised more than £101,000 for cancer charities.

The Hallowe’en spectacular is in memory of Alexander Albiston, a close family friend who died of cancer, aged 18.

Takings this year will go to Sheffield’s Weston Park Teenage Cancer Unit.

Visitors to Gallow Tree Road have come from as far away as Nottingham and Leicester - with most arriving in costume.

“We start making the props about two months beforehand and they take three or four days to put up,” said Lauren.

“We still enjoy it, definitely - it hasn’t become a chore at all.

“Seeing kids’ faces is the best part. And it’s great to raise so much money for charity.”

The family does not make such a fuss for Christmas. “It has the most scope for making props,” Lauren explains.

“I think the name of our street is a big inspiration too. It’s perfect, really.”

Lauren said that the family will welcome visitors from 5pm until 9pm on Monday.