THE honour of placing the cider-soaked toast in the branches for the robins during Carhampton Community Orchard Wassail on “old” Twelfth Night (January 17) was awarded to Laurie Fricker (pictured).

Laurie has been a devotee of Carhampton and its traditions since he came to the village as an evacuee in 1940 and he regularly travels from Hampshire by bus and train to be in Carhampton on special occasions.

Folk singer Martyn Babb and his friends led a crowd of about 60

in the traditional wassail songs, Roland Husebo’s hot spicy orchard apple cider cheered the company, and Tony Palmer’s gunmen drove “terrified pests” from their winter lairs with deafening reports.

In welcoming the whole company, orchard representative Keith Jones thanked villagers for their support of the orchard project.