Allenstown frightful family put on spooky spectacle for charity

An Allenstown family who have transformed their back garden into a Halloween extravaganza using recyclable materials are raising money for charity in memory of two much loved relatives who passed away in recent years.

The Herwards who began decorating the front garden of their home one Halloween during covid to give the community a boost have spent hundreds of hours preparing for spooky season by overhauling the entirety of their garden, with their theme this year being “The Herwards Garden of Doom.”

The deadly display created with unused household items includes a skeleton tea party, a giant spiderweb, a demon chained to wooden pallets, a ghoulish creature nailed to a door with the words ‘Help Me’ spelled out in red ‘blood’ and a witch climbing out of a make shift cauldron.

Anyone looking to get into the spooky spirit is invited to walk around this Halloween and marvel the decorations and there is even an area where visitors can get a picture in a photo stand in board.

This year, the Halloween fanatics have been raising funds for The Irish Cancer Society, with the current total raised exceeding €800.

"In 2020 during the pandemic when myself and my family were all out of work due to covid, we decided to create a small outdoor Halloween project and it has got bigger and bigger each year,” said Lucy.

" Last year my auntie Brid was diagnosed with cancer and she loved our Halloween display and the effort we put into making in,” she added.

"Sadly in October of 2023 Brid passed away so this year not only have we decided to make our Halloween display but we have also decided to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society in aid of our two aunties Brid Herward and Mary Reilly who have passed away from cancer.

" We have created a just giving donation page and also a little post box on our garden trail for donations.”

If you thought a massive spend went into creating the spectacular Allenstown ‘House of Horrors’ then think again.

"We made lot of the stuff from things we had lying around the shed at home,” explains Lucy.

"The cauldron with the witch is just a big bucket that we made using Papier-mâché from recyclable newspapers and bin bags and we just got little Christmas baubles that we glued on,” she added.

"Our neighbour who is a farmer gave us some of his old wrapping from bales and that is what we made the witches out of. A lot of it is DIY and other little things like the skeletons we picked up throughout the year just to add on to it. Most of the stuff is all home made.”

“For the photo board my sister is quite artistic so we got plywood from the shop and she sketched out the designs and painted it all up.

"A lot of families come walking around in the evening so we thought it would be good for them to have a little area where they can take pictures."

Lucy, Patricia, Bevin, Patrick, Jennifer and Melissa Herward put on spoooky spectacle at their home in Allenstown every year.

Reaction from the local community spurred the family on to out do the previous year's effort according to Lucy who said:

"We try to add a new addition every year. It started out small with one or two things up at the gateway and when we saw families and friends and neighbours come up and have a look and say how great it was we wanted to build on it each year.

"Now we look at ideas on Pinterest for inspiration so it has got bigger and bigger each year!

"We try to go in line with Farmaphobia so the display will be up until the end of next week so people are free to come out, park the car and and walk the garden and have a look around!"

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