FOURTEEN Christmas trees, all very differently decorated, stood in Spreyton Parish Church for its third Christmas Tree Festival.

It is hoped the festival will be a part of the Christmas tradition at Spreyton every other year, raising funds for the church and giving visitors a big treat.

Many decorations were hand-made such as the doves, baubles and stars made from newspaper for the Village Shop tree.

Knitted rosettes in purple and green were on the tree decorated by the Women’s Institute to mark the 100 years since the movement began for Votes for Women.

For this year’s festival people were asked to use only two colours on their trees. Each tree bore the name of its decorators, which organisation it represented and who had sponsored it.

Newest village organisation with a tree was Spreyton Football Club, the club only a year old but last season’s Geary Cup champions in Division Seven in the Devon and Exeter Football League. It is now in Division Six. So their tree was in the red and white of the club colours.

At three-years-old Spreyton Bridge Club is a fairly new organisation, meeting every Wednesday in the Village Hall. It is a sociable club, welcoming new members and beginners. Every now and then they visit other clubs.

Its tree was decorated with baubles hand-decorated with one of the four different suits of cards and with small cards. It was another tree with subtleties among its decorations.

Having knitted or crocheted more than 100 red poppies and a few purple ones for the animals for November, members of the WI had made the rosettes for their tree. The WI is one of the older village organisations having been set up in the 1950s.

The tree sponsored by SBM Arabians picked up the colours of the purple and gold of a flower collar won by one of the SBM horses in a championship.

Spreyton Gardening club chose Brussels sprouts and the small Chantenay carrots. They meet once a month on Thursday afternoons.

The village primary school had joined in, pupils making the decorations for their tree.

Barb’s Hairdressers’ tree was in glowing red and gold, decorated by Jenny Lee.

Although the festival ran for three days over the weekend before Christmas, the trees are staying up until Twelfth Night.

The Festival was also a chance to enjoy the new heating and the new lights in the church.