Roadside characters make big impression

IF you’re driving through Cross Hands it wouldn’t be totally out of the ordinary to spot a giant Frankenstein or skeleton on the side of the road.

Two years ago Tracey Thomas and her husband Llyr, who own Celtic Readymix in Cross Hands, had the idea of decorating giant concrete blocks as various characters to mark a number of occasions.

In that time they’ve had huge zombies, rabbits, snowmen and even schoolchildren lining the entrance to their site on Cross Hands business park.

Mrs Thomas said: “We make concrete “Legotype” blocks anyway, and we’re a small family business, so we decided to decorate them for extra interest from passers-by.

“We did it for the first time for Halloween two years ago and then we did Christmas and Easter, and people started asking ‘what’s next?’ We’ve got Frankenstein now and we’re currently doing one for Remembrance Day.

“It’s a big event, so we wanted to do it out of respect.

“It’s taken off now and it’s good for business. We’ve done about 12 now.”

The blocks are roughly 0.6 metres tall and 1.8 metres wide and there’s even some blocks decorated as schoolchildren on display at Saron Primary School.

“Our first Halloween one was the most talked about and we had children come down from Saron Primary School to do some trick or treating on our yard,” Mrs Thomas added.

“After Remembrance Day we’re hoping to do a Christmas theme next.

“My friend comes in and does them for us, I just show her a picture and she can do it.

“We’ve got to do them when it’s dry.

“The blocks are used for storage or parking,” she went on.

“They’re good at retaining big solid things as they won’t move.”