The 18 entries to the Tytherington Scarecrow Festival were whittled down to three this evening by the votes of fellow residents who picked their favourite creations.

Lorraine Brown's creative entry, named Jane, was made from a blow-up doll and donned with an Amazon T-shirt, a pink wig and a sign that read: "Getting through lockdown one drink at a time."

Asked where she got the inspiration for Jane the scarecrow, Lorraine told Macclesfield Nub News: "It just came from being locked down myself with three teenagers.

"The Amazon T-shirt, because we've practically used Amazon every day and obviously gin has played a role too."

Lorraine completed her creation over two weeks and described being "shocked" when she was voted the winner by the residents in the Tytherington Neighbours and Barnaby Parade 2020 Facebook pages.

Coming in at second place were married couple Dilys and Malcolm Griffiths with their 'Call the Midwife' themed scarecrow.

For that added authenticity, their creation is dressed in one of Dilys' old uniforms and is even holding a baby doll.

Malcolm explained: "We decided we wanted to do something for the key workers. Towards the end, Dilys was worried about how she would get it done, so I stepped in."

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Dilys added: "I sorted the body and he worked on the head."

A speech bubble coming from the scarecrow's mouth reads: "Oh wow Mrs Jones, that's a whopper special delivery."

This was in honour of a family friend who has recently had a baby, which Malcolm described as a "big one".

Four and half year old Liberty Walker of Tytherington Drive came in third place with her creation, 'Coronasaurus'.

The idea was inspired as Libby and the family spent the week learning about dinosaurs before she started back at Scamps Day Nursery.

Liberty said they decided to create a dinosaur because her menacing-looking creation would do the job and keep crows away.

Her mum, Louise Walker, said: "It was scary and we were also doing dinosaur week where we were learning about them, so it only made sense to make this. It kept us busy because I'm furloughed and Duncan [Liberty's dad] had annual leave so we made the most of it."

Anne White was the organiser of the event and said: "The festival was inspired by the Bollington Scarecrow Festival. My husband had driven through one day and told me about it and I thought that would be a great thing for Tytherington to do."

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The festival was held in conjunction with the Macclesfield Barnaby Festival which has been encouraging people to be creative with their 'Homemade Parade' over the Barnaby week

Anne said she was pleased with the turnout and the great quality of the entries.

"Tytherington have done one or two community events during lockdown such as the VE celebrations and the Bear Hunt. This was just another add on for that really," Anne said.

The prize certificates were kindly prepared by Macclesfield Town Council.

Pictures by Geoff White and Max Edwardes. All top three entries can be seen in the gallery above.