A NORTHUMBERLAND farming couple will attend the WellChild Awards in the presence of Prince Harry after winning a crazy purple hay bales competition run by Carrs Billington and WellChild.

Purple monsters popped up in fields all over the UK as more than 100 farmers took up the challenge to create eye-catching displays from their purple hay bales.

More than 50,000 bales were customised with special packs provided by Carrs Billington and the winners were James and Gayle Baty of North Acomb Farm, Stocksfield.

Farmers taking part sent in photos of their creations which were displayed on the WellChild and Carrs Billington Facebook pages.

Mr and Mrs Baty will attend the WellChild Awards 2016 at the Dorchester Hotel, London, on October 3rd. The awards will be attended by WellChild Patron Prince Harry and a host of celebrities and will present awards to inspirational children coping with serious illness, to caring children and to dedicated child health professionals.

The winning picture from the Baty family had two year old Grace sitting on the display posing with the monsters and attracted the greatest number of likes on Facebook.

Carrs Billington chose to support WellChild and distributed the purple silage wrap and netwrap supplied by Zeus Packaging Group in WellChild purple.

The campaign has been well supported by all Carrs Billington staff who took part in an annual golf day, the Great North Run, the 8 in 48 Trek the Lakes Challenge and even organised cake sales raising more than £12,000.