How man's Halloween house display has become bittersweet tradition

Georgie Docker

North West

As people up and down the country look forward to celebrating Halloween this evening, one Greater Manchester man takes the festivities further than most.

Dave Barron, 61, from Bramhall, in Greater Manchester, has been decorating his home for Halloween every year since 2011, and has been preparing this year’s Back to the Future-themed display since May.

Dave’s efforts are all a tribute to his late wife, Catherine. Accepting donations from Halloween visitors, he has raised more than £55,000 for the Macmillan cancer charity, which cared for Catherine before she died in 2020.

“Halloween is emotional for me,” Dave said. “I miss Catherine tremendously. She’d think I’m an absolute lunatic, but she was always a big part of it and I think she’d be really proud.”

“I have been working on this year’s Halloween display since May,” he said. “And it does cost me a bit.

“But It’s a small price to pay if it helps people who are suffering with cancer.”

“Within the last decade it’s just got it bigger and bigger and bigger,” Dave said of his Halloween extravaganzas.”

Dave put on a Doctor Who-themed display last year, but said this year’s had been the most challenging project yet.

“This has probably been our most ambitious challenge in all the years we’ve done it,” he said.

“I thought building a Dalek last year was bad enough, but the car we built this year has got that many angles and twists and turns on it.

“But we’ve got there. We started around end of May and we’ve been working on it pretty much ever since, weather-permitting.”

Dave has been helped by his 27-year-old daughter Sarah and other family members and friends.

He also hands out more than 500 sweets, donated by his local Tesco, during each event.

“There’s so many people, from the timber company, to the tyre company, to a friend who makes our banners, to everyone else who has chipped in, lending us instruments, donating costumes,” he said.

Dave said he was particularly touched when a stranger responded to his Facebook appeal looking for a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12.

“I wanted to take measurements to make it as realistic as possible, so we could build it to size,” Dave said.

“A lady wrote back to me almost instantly and she said my husband has one, he’s out in it at the moment.

“He offered to come to our house from his home in Poynton and left the car with us for the day.

“It’s people stepping in like that that shows you how far community can stretch.”

Dave also said he was hoping to be paid another visit from Salford comedian, actor and singer Jason Manford, who has become a regular attendee over the years.

“They are aiming to come this year,” Dave said. “They have their own party and they tend to come a little bit later on.”