St Augustine summer fete

But this was just one of many attractions of the popular fair which appealed to all tastes and all ages.

The steam engine was driven by Derek Wait and Richard Brown, who said: "The train always gets a good reaction. And everyone calls it Percy because it's green."

The weather was reasonably kind on Saturday as youngsters from St Augustine's junior church enjoyed traditional fun such as the coconut shy and toy stall, while inside the church hall visitors and volunteers socialised and chatted as they sorted through the many goods on sale as well as the tombola and raffle.

Father Robert Coates said: "We are aiming to raise around 2,000 today towards getting the kitchen in the church room refurbished. This year there has been a terrific response and goodwill from people in terms of donations to the stalls. They have been more generous than they have been for years. Everyone has said there is a really good spirit in the place at the moment - and there is plenty of people here too."

Those helping on the day included John Williams, Martyn May, George Dutton, and Irene Chapman on the plant stall, and inside selling cakes were Ruppinder Gibbs, Gill Davies, and Jane Lucking.

The ladies of the Working Party had a wide range of handknitted items to sell, as well as their homemade cards - they were Peggy Powell, Valerie Lankester, Joan Minter and Connie Sims.

Peggy said: "There are all sorts of things we have made - from coathangers, to toys. It has not been too bad here at all - considering it is the middle of summer and we are selling all these woollies. We always get a good response...people have known us from over the years and they come and see out stall."

Clare Phillips and Beryl Relf were busy running the raffle, sitting behind a cute brown bear which was one of the prizes.

Clare commented: "This has been a wonderful morning - we have made 80 already and we hope to make 100, and we usually do, fingers crossed."

The event was organised by Sandy Bennett who begins working on it weeks in advance.

She said: "We are hoping to raise funds to refit and modernise the small hall kitchen up to health and safety standards. We have got two halls and the small one is hired out as well as the main one, so we have to bring it up to scratch.

"To do all this takes weeks...we started to get stuff in six weeks before. But this year I think we had the most offers of help and the most items donated ever - I can't believe it really. People have come up and said they can do this or that, so I think it has been easier. We have a great junior church and they did games and other stalls, so that has been very good.

"I would like to thank everyone because they have been absolutely brilliant this year."