Around 70 Camelford residents joined in the town council’s annual wassail at the community orchard, Lanteglos, on Saturday evening.

Following the creation of the orchard in 2013 to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the town council encouraged the tradition of wassailing.

As part of the ancient ceremony, the king and queen were crowned, 1st Camelford Scouts were in charge of the fire and the Twyardreath Morris Side dancers had everyone moving.

Town councillor Claire Hewlett said: “I was delighted with the turnout. Everyone had a good time, and even the weather behaved itself.

“Our wassail queen and king, Tegan and Joseph, did a fantastic job of leading the procession, pouring the cider round the tree and then hanging the first cider dipped toast in the tree.”

To wassail is to drink to the health of your apple trees in the hope of good harvest later in the year. Noise is made, songs are sung, a rhyme is read, cider is poured round the roots of the tree, toast dipped in cider is hung on the tree branches, and shotguns are blasted into the air to ward off evil spirits.

This will now be a regular event in Camelford on the third Saturday in January. To keep up to date with what’s going on in Camelford, visit the Facebook groups ‘lovecamelford’ and the ‘Camelford Events Working Group.’