THIS year's wassail in Colwall was the most successful ever, with 400 people taking to the village orchards to make this year's crop fruitful.

Some 400 people turned out for the traditional ceremony, intended to bless the apple crop and drive evil spirits out of the orchards.

The event on Saturday evening, opened at 6pm with the revellers gathering at Colwall Stone in the centre of the village.

The Old Meg morris dangers performed, and torches were lit, before the wassailers formed a procession and headed towards Colwall's community orchard.

Once the revellers reached the orchard, the wassailing ceremony itself took place. Wassailers circled the oldest tree in the orchard, poured libations of cider on to the tree roots and made a lot of noise to scare away the malign spirits

The procession was led by a man called the Butler, his face blacked out to preserve anonymity.

Helen Stace of the Colwall Orchard Group, which organised the event, said: "We broke all the records this year with 400 people at the wassail. We had a wonderful crowd, a great atmosphere and an amazing torchlit procession snaking along Stone Drive

"Old Meg opened the event with dancing at Colwall Stone, and then lit the torches and set off in procession down Stone Drive. The trail of light was great to see.

"Thanks go to Blue Cedar Homes, who sponsored the event, Rick James and Leslie Hitchin who donated the sausage rolls, Old Meg for performing at the Stone, and of course to our inestimable celebrity butler.

"Events like this don't happen by themselves, almost 40 volunteers were involved in organising and running the event and huge thanks go to all of them. "

Colwall Orchard Group: was originally set up in 2007 to identify orchards in the parish and assess their wildlife value.

The group found more than 40 traditional orchards, in varying states of management or neglect, and now it conserves, promotes and celebrate orchards in and around Colwall and has established the community orchard.