Hartlepool family ‘already planning 2026 Halloween spectacle’

A family who created a Halloween house spectacle have said they have already started planning for 2026.

Pete Noble and Lucy Bradley said they had been out “all hours” since August assembling their fright night decorations from “scraps and bits and pieces” in Hartlepool.

Pete said his family saw hundreds of visitors at their home in Talland Close on Friday.

He said “year-on-year the displays had got more elaborate” from scarecrows, skeletons and an electric chair.

The family’s preparations for next year’s festivities begin “pretty much as soon as the door closes on 31 October,” he said.

This consists of “drawing up battle plans, with big rolls of paper laid out on the table with ideas”, Pete added.

He said: “I am known for being a bit of a hoarder… I stockpile things over the year from work, little bits of pipe, wood, pallets and we get building at the end of the summer holidays.”

“This year we even had a sound engineer to create a soundscape for us,” he added.

Pete said the family had “already settled on a theme for 2026”, adding their daughter was “so excited”.

“We wanted to chase that feeling and I guess we’ve got more elaborate year on year,” he said.

Lucy said the children were dressed as all different types of characters last year, so this year they wanted to have more Halloween characters, including scarecrows.

Pete: “The kids get very involved. We had a little group of people last year who were at the end of the drive who were too afraid to come further along, and Lucy came out and chased them up the street.”

“When the children get older and think ‘oh grow up dad, Halloween’, I don’t know what I will do then… maybe we will always be the creepy house on Talland Close.”

The family wanted to use their spectacle to fundraise for Alice House Hospice in Hartlepool.

Pete said: “My mum was diagnosed with cancer and they didn’t give her very long but she fought it for three years.

“Alice House were fantastic with the support they provided.”