WHEN it comes to bonfire night, there can be few Guy Fawkes effigies across Britain which are as immaculately turned out as that which sits atop the bonfire at Colchester Castle Park.

For 52 years, 80-year-old Judy Alden has meticulously made the garments for the Guy Fawkes figure, whilst her husband, Bernard, puts together the frame.

Standing at 10ft tall and stuffed with dozens of old Colchester Gazette newspapers, the Guy Fawkes effigy takes hours to make, but Mrs Alden does not feel as if her efforts go up in smoke, by any stretch.

Explaining how she creates the effigy, Mrs Alden said: “You make a big pair of trousers to fit him and find a big shirt and put it on back to front – then I have to make the hat, which is made out of a top end of a pair of tights.

“To make that hat, you have to cut out an oval, fold it back, and check it fits his head.”

That is just part of the process.

Putting together such a striking figure is part of a fundraiser for King Coel’s Kittens, a Colchester charity which provides grants to community groups.

Since Mrs Alden started putting together Guy Fawkes in the early 1970s, she estimates hundreds of thousands of pounds must have been raised over the years from bonfire night ticket sales.

After one of the first bonfire nights, part of the money raised went towards buying a colour TV for a maternity ward in Lexden Road; these days, the event has become so well supported that bonfire night in Colchester Castle Park can raise as much as £20,000 for charity ever year.

But even though it has been more than 50 years since Mrs Alden created the first Guy Fawkes effigy for Colchester Castle Park’s bonfire night, she said she still gets the same level of satisfaction seeing it finished now as when she first did in the 1970s.

She said: “I enjoy making it, and when you sit back and look at it, you feel a great sense of achievement.”

One suspects there will be a great sense of admiration in the crowd, too.

The fireworks display takes place on Sunday in Castle Park.