2 weeks Ago
A 20-year-old who creates a Halloween maze in his back garden every year says he prefers the festival over Christmas and wanted to create something for families in his community. Josh Metcalfe transforms his garden in Moulsecoomb, Brighton , into a spooky trail every year and often draws in hundreds of people from across Sussex. The construction worker, who also works at Tulleys Farm’s Shocktober event in Crawley, said he even gets his friends and family involved as scare actors.
He started the tradition around five years ago. A scarecrow inside this year's maze (Image: The Argus) Josh, who builds many of the props himself in a two-month long operation, said: “Halloween has been my favourite season ever since I was little. I prefer it to Christmas.
“We get a couple of hundred people coming through some years. Some people come from Worthing or Crawley just to come through the maze. “It feels really good to be able to do it.
Sometimes the parents are more scared than the adults.” A pumpkin outside this year's maze (Image: The Argus) Josh, who lives at home with his parents in Goodwood Way, said he spends “a couple of hundred pounds” on props and materials to make the maze every year. He then lets people in free on Halloween night.
The maze, complete with lighting, smoke machines and sound systems, takes over a converted bar area in the back garden. Josh said he begins to build it about two months before October 31 but starts planning the next maze “as soon as the last one is finished”. Josh and his fiancee Olivia (Image: The Argus) He builds much of the scenery himself each year using his skills as a construction worker – but his loft is also “full of Halloween decorations”.
The theme of the maze changes every year – this year it is a haunted corn field. In previous years it has been a Jack The Ripper-inspired Victorian England, among other things. Josh added that he gets friends and family, including his fiancée Olivia, involved as actors to bring the maze to life.
Since he created his first maze Josh now also uses his skills to work at Tulleys Shocktober Fest mazes..
