By Nora Parminter

THE Harvest Festival weekend at St Swithun's Church, Shobrooke on Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 19 was a huge success.

The Festival was organised by the Friends of Shobrooke Church and is their main annual fundraiser, with proceeds going towards the maintenance of the church.

The theme for this year's festival was Songs of Praise and the church was decorated to reflect this.

There were exhibitions and a number of stalls which included crafts, produce, flowers, cakes, james, bric-a-brac, plants and books.

A silent auction was held as well as a grand draw.

Refreshments, and light lunches were available for visitors during the day and teas were served in the afternoon.

The festival opened with a short service at the Holy Well in Church Lane at 10.15am and the stalls and activities opened at 10.30am.

On the Sunday the festival opened at the church from 2pm with a short children's service which culminated with the traditional rose petal shower from the tower followed by toys descending down a zip wire from the top of the tower.

A special Harvest Songs of Praise was held at 6pm with a collection for Crediton Dementia Alliance. Donations were also given to Crediton Foodbank.

Rosemary Barber, who has organised the event for the past 10 years, said: "We opened two blue books in May for people to sign up with want they wanted to donate and what stalls they would run.

"It's lovely that so many people from the village are involved and we are very grateful for their help and support.

"We are raising money for the church and we have been told that the listed cob wall that surrounds St Swithun's Church will cost between £9,000 and £15,000 to repair so we have a long way to go.

The organisers hope that the Harvest Festival weekend will have raised in the region of £3,000.