'Months making Halloween house kept me out the pub'

Tommy Kelly said he loved tinkering around and reusing household appliances to create 'moving monsters'

A man who spent months crafting a Halloween display at his house said the effort "keeps me out of the pub".

Tommy Kelly's home, on Wisbech Road in March, Cambridgeshire, is adorned with "25 monsters and ghouls" and last year saw around 500 visitors on 31 October.

It's the eleventh year that Mr Kelly, 50, has held the display and he hoped to raise more than £1,000 for charity from this year's effort, which would be the highest ever amount.

His display this time around featured a zombie with "toxic waste" flowing from its mouth into a drum barrel plus many other ghoulish animatronic figures.

Tommy Kelly said "things just snowballed" when he started putting on a display in 2013. "It's taking over a bit, just ask my long suffering wife," he added

Mr Kelly said: "We've got new neighbours - on our first meeting I was putting the finishing touches to a Ronald McDonald effigy wielding a bloodied pickaxe.

"They seemed OK about it."

He said that "lots of putty, latex, staples and pins" had gone into the construction of his "really scary house".

He added: "People are very much on board with what we're doing. They love it, children love it.

"We only get positive comments.

"It keeps me out of the pub. We just love having a laugh."

Collection pots have been left fixed to the garden fence for people to donate any spare change.

"We have noticed that the physical cash contributions have gone down dramatically - I don't think people carry loose change these days," Mr Kelly said.

"However, we did a quiz at the local pub over the road to raise extra revenue, plus online donations are going really well, so we are nearly at £700 already and are expecting big crowds on the 31st".

Mr Kelly said cars slowed down to take a look as they passed

Mr Kelly said that many local businesses get involved and contributed sweets, financial support, raffle prizes and snack items for visiting trick or treaters.

He said all the money raised was given to the March Rotary Club who use it to support their initiative called 'Kids Out' which helped local disadvantaged children to enjoy daytrips to nearby attractions.