FAIRIES and ducks are blazing a trail for tourists and locals alike in Bedale.

The town’s Wombles group, who regularly litter pick, have branched out into creating trails around the town, even transforming an old red phone boxes into a fairyland.

Bedale mayor, councillor Amanda Coates says it is magic - and their efforts have created huge interest, particularly among children, with calls now for the fairies to have their own social media page.

The project is all thanks to Clare Garrod, who jointly runs the litter picking and town tidy group, although she admits she is not a fan of the mythical creatures. 

"We wanted to create a focal point in the phone box, but also it is about recycling," she said. "We have used all kinds of reclaimed bits and pieces. It seems to have gone down really well, everytime I go down there someone is there looking at it.

“I can honestly say I hate fairies, I was never interested in them, but it is lovely to see the children’s faces when they look through the windows. I had an old log in the garden and I thought we could do something with that, so created a fairy mountain, and just went from there, using old Christmas decorations, bits of polystyrene, plastic bottles and bits and pieces.

“I had Covid quite badly and struggled with long Covid so creating the fairy mountain and the trails really helped and gave me something to take my mind off it.

“With the ducks along the beck, I had a template, we cut them out, painted them and created the duck trail. Through the litter busters we wanted to do more to involve children, that was when we came up with the fairy doors, and it went really, really well, so now they are around the town and in the park.”

Mayor Amanda Coates said: “I would like to thank Claire and her team for their enthusiasm in everything they have achieved for the town. We as a council are extremely grateful. The fairy telephone box and the fairy trail and duck trail have all been greeted with excitement and interest from many of all ages.”

There has already been interest from as far afield as America, Amsterdam and Norwich and Claire said she has been approached to create a fairy Facebook page. She is already thinking about how to carry it on and has plans for Christmas, but in the meantime there is an idea that the next instalment could be a squirrel trail.

“Now I do really like squirrels, so that would help,” she adds.