20ft teddy scarecrow is destroyed in Pattingham blaze
A huge 20ft teddy bear scarecrow which was one of the highlights of a South Staffordshire festival has been destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
The creation, made of two tons of hay, formed part of this year's Pattingham Scarecrow Festival.
It was in a field off Clive Road when it was set alight at around 9.40pm last night.
Organisers of the annual festival today called the fire a 'terrible shame' but said it would not ruin the goodwill in the village.
See more pictures from the Pattingham scarecrow festival here
Mike Coope, one of the organisers of the event, said: "This was a celebration to bring together the community but then someone knocks the good will on the head by doing this."
Mr Coope said some children had planned to go and see the teddy bear scarecrow today but would no longer get the chance.
"There were people out looking at the scarecrow as late as 8pm last night and they were out with their lanterns and torches," he added.
"There were some children in the village who I know were going to head down today and look at it as they hadn't seen it over the weekend."
He said he got a call from a farm worker this morning telling him somebody had set the hay on fire.
"It's a terrible shame something like this can happen to this village but I don't want this incident to ruin the good will that has been shared among the community this weekend."
Firefighters from Codsall tackled the blaze last night.
Around 100 scarecrows were created for the event, which ran from Friday until yesterday. Around 10,000 people flocked to the village over the course of the event to see the displays.
