A HAUNTED Halstead Halloween display has raised hundreds for a town charity after another successful year of scares.
Dan Hawkins and his family have been turning their house in Cherry Tree Close in Halstead into a haunted mansion for years.
What began as the family putting a few smaller decorations out each year for Halloween, grew over time with more on display.
“It then became a bit of a friendly competition between the houses," said Dan.
“But when we started getting large amounts of visitors and great feedback we all pulled together as a street to make something even more awesome.
“Because of the number of visitors and how many times we were asked in previous years if we added a charity pot we decided again to raise money for Halstead in Bloom as they do such an amazing job all year round keeping our town looking lovely.”
Dan continued: “This year was by far our biggest display choosing a pirate theme which was agreed by all of the houses, we had a jetty and shack, the front of a pirate ship and a pirate tavern.
“We spent many weekends and evenings preparing for the event which involved building the majority of the props and scenery I believe we started around the end of August.
“There were a lot of bacon rolls and cups of tea shared out between all the houses. It was really lovely to do this together as a street.”
Dan says the street had more than 800 visitors this year, a record for Cherry Tree Close.
“People told us they look forward to it every year, some said we are the pinnacle of their Halloween," he said.
“Visitors come from the surrounding areas like Braintree, Colchester and Sudbury and we had amazing feedback and couldn't be happier.
“We would like to say a big thank you to all of our visitors we had and that we really appreciate your support and donations.
“We'd also like to say a huge thank you to John Fowlers Solicitors Colchester who donated a large quantity of the sweets and matched the amount raised on the night, giving us a grand total of £550.
“We hope to see you all next year.”
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