Hensingham’s spell-binding Halloween house has returned with big fundraising plans.
Homeowner Philip Pattinson, 43, has once again transformed his West Cumbrian home into a horror house with dozens of handmade props, lights and photo opportunities for trick or treaters.
Philip and his wife Dianna, 44, have gone all out this year under a Harry Potter theme, which has taken Philip over 20 hours to set up.
Their decorations include a handmade giant spider, an 8ft deathly hallows sign, a full size diorama of a skeleton Harry Potter and Voldemort battling, 18 dressed up skeleton characters from the books and more.
It’s a seasonal spectacle the husband and wife duo love to put on all in the name of raising money for a good cause.
This year, the pair are fundraising for 4Louis, a charity that supports people affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child.
Alongside all the joy the decorations are set to bring, on Monday October 20 at 5pm, Pet Encounter is also bringing their real snowy owl Athena to the house for people to meet to help raise more money for the charity.
Philip and Dianna are also putting together 400 bags of sweets for trick or treaters this year and collection buckets will be in the garden for anyone wishing to donate.
He said: “We’ve done a Harry Potter theme this year, we’ve got 18 characters from the films as dressed up skeletons and we have a few other horror themes in there.
“It took me two 10 hour days of doing it to put together and with the weather and storm I have to go out and make repairs, so it does take a bit of time!
“This year we got donated some free pallets, so I made a ticket booth to put the charity bucket in and I’ve made an electric chair that I’ve got a skeleton sat in.
“We’ve got a massive deathly hallows sign that stands around 8ft tall that a friend made for our wedding last year too, my wife is a big fan, so she was very happy about the theme this year.”
Philip said the house exploded in popularity last year.
He said: “It went a bit mental last year, it was like a tourist attraction, we’d come home from work and people were queueing outside our garden.
“It almost feels like a job at times now with the 10 hour days it takes to put it up! But it’s still fun, I’ve had people stopping their cars to talk to me to say they walk past with their kids and think it’s great and that they look forward to seeing it.”
This year marks the couple’s sixth year decorating their home and their fourth year raising money for charity.
In the past, they have decorated their garden under a variety of horror themes including Shaun of the Dead, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror and Lydia and Beetlegeuse’s wedding – inspired by the pair getting married.
The couple first started to raise money for different charities each year after people kept asking if they had a collection box.
So far, they’ve raised money for Cardiac Risk in the Young, Dementia UK and West Cumberland Hospital’s breast screening unit.
While this year’s charity 4Louis is a nationwide charity, it does a lot of work to support people and professionals in Cumbria.
In the last three years in the county, the charity have provided:
- One £1,750 cuddle cot to West Cumberland Hospital
- Three cuddle cots worth £5,250 to Cumberland Infirmary
- 296 memory boxes to West Cumberland Hospital, Cumberland Infirmary and Furness General Hospitals worth £13,450 in total
- Specialist bereavement equipment worth around £2,000 to hospitals
- Contributions towards the bereavement suite at West Cumberland Hospital
- Free bereavement training for healthcare professionals and University of Cumbria students
- Two annual sessions for student midwives
- Active involvement in the Cumbria Midwifery Education Advisory Board to improve care across the county
It’s also a charity that means a lot to Philip and his family.
He said: “The reason we’ve chosen 4Louis, is my wife’s sister Lydia and her husband Craig, their daughter Erin was born a sleeping angel in March last year.
“When they were at the hospital, one member of staff told them to contact 4Louis, because they’re involved with West Cumberland Hospital, Carlisle Infirmary and down in Barrow.
“They contacted them and they supported them and gave them a memory box, which has keepsakes in, one of things they do is they have two identical teddy bears, so one can be kept with the child and one can stay with the family.
“It gave comfort to Lydia and Craig and Erin’s brothers Jonah and Isaac and it helped them take a little bit of her memory home.
“But since we’ve started fundraising, I’ve had a few people come to me and say they’ve used the charity and how much it helped them.
“Because the garden got so big last year we’ve bought proper charity buckets and 4Louis have set us up a fundraising page, so hopefully we do well this year too.”
Philip and Dianna will start handing sweets out to trick or treaters from October 29 and will continue handing them out every evening after 6pm until Halloween, Friday October 31.
