Harry Potter characters magically appear in Shropshire town centre for wizard's birthday

Postboxes, trees and benches have been decorated with knitted Harry Potter characters in Shropshire by a local crafts group.

The Ellesmere Yarn Bombers have been decorating the town with their creations since 2018.

Harry Potter was chosen as the theme for this year’s summer yarnbomb, a concept which sees colourful knitted and crocheted yarn adorn streets.

The creations have been put on display because today (31 July) marks Harry Potter's birthday.

Alison Utting, who is one of the organisers of the group, said the idea behind the theme came from a member who wanted visitors and those living there, to find "joy" in them.

She said: "We’ve got some really talented crafters in the group and many were getting really involved saying, ‘we can do Dobby, we can do Harry Potter’.

"Others were like ‘who is that?’ But everyone has really got on board."

Miniature characters of Hagrid, Harry Potter and Dobby were made by the team, a platform nine and three quarters sign for a bench and a mini-Slytherin outfit to grace a tree.

Ms Utting said that one of the reasons people still love the Harry Potter books is because author JK Rowling was a pioneer of “bringing people into the foreground who would usually be seen as background characters”.

She said: "We’ve had people commenting from Australia and in America because people have been sharing pictures of them online,” she said.

"Bringing joy has always been our absolute aim – if somebody walks past and they make people smile, then we’ve achieved what we’ve wanted to achieve."

"And when you put them up and drive through the town and you see people having their photos taken by them, it’s amazing, as we’re all fiercely proud of our town and hope the yarnbombing draws more people to Ellesmere.”

The Harry Potter creations will on dispplay to see until September.