A village charity scarecrow trail has been left with a bit of a mystery – who stole Cinders the blow-up doll?

And although the scarecrow thief handed back Cinder's dress and wig, the doll is still missing.

When the fun Stoke Fleming event came up one scarecrow short for the village quiz trail, organiser Sophie Rae hurriedly put together one extra scarecrow – using a wig, her daughter's best Cinderella dressing-up dress and the blow-up doll left over from a girly hen night years before.

But when it came to collecting in all the scarecrows at the end of the highly successful four-hour fundraiser, Cinders had disappeared.

The Cinderella figure had been the last of the 35 scarecrows set out on a mile-long trail around the village last Saturday – and had been tied to a stone post in the village playing field shelter.

When Sophie came to collect it on Saturday afternoon, it was the only scarecrow to have vanished.

'It looks like Cinderella might have been kidnapped,' she said.

'I don't know if she was blown away or not but she was tied down and we found the string and it had not been broken.

'To be honest we don't know what has happened. She was tied to a pillar.

'I don't know if someone took it as a joke or it has blown away. It was a wet day but it wasn't windy.'

However, Sophie said on Tuesday: 'Cinder's dress and wig have turned up this morning in a mystery bag, so only the doll is missing.'

The scarecrow event, which raised £1,200 to be shared out between the village school and play park, was the first of its kind to go ahead in Stoke Fleming.

The scarecrows had all been made by villagers or local schoolchildren based on a theme of TV, films or children's nursery rhymes. A quiz question people had to solve accompanied each of the scarecrows and the team which got most of the questions correct walked off with a £30 prize.

The fundraiser was organised by Sophie Rae and Annette Elliott and it attracted 400 competitors despite the heavy rain.

'It was fantastic. We had 400 people, a mixture of villagers, parents and kids ranging from 18 months of age to 94 years,' said Sophie.

The event included a barbecue, raffle, teas, coffees and a cake and tabletop sale

The winners of the scarecrow trail were parents Georgie and Rob Varney and Nick and Clare Roberts and their children.

Sophie said that all the scarecrows had been put together from recyclable materials but when the trail came up one scarecrow short she had resorted to a quick fix to ensure the event was complete.

She dug out the blow-up doll, which had been a bit of a joke for a hen night many years before, and borrowed a wig and her daughter's Cinderella dress.