IT was farewell and adieu to the members of Hugill’s Crew, West Somerset’s popular band of shanty singers, who played their last concert on Sunday (February 25) before disbanding after five years as age caught up with them.

All but one of the Crew’s five singers is older than 75 years, including founder Keith Woolger.

Sunday’s performance on Watchet Esplanade was an opportunity to present a £1,300 cheque to Donna and Paul Stevens for their Watchet charity Elliot’s Touch.

The rest other Crew are Ray Coleing, Mike Dubble, Colin Adams and Chris Webb, who made their debut on BBC South West.

They have since raised more than £5,000 for local charities, including the RNLI and Children's Hospice South West.

The group commemorates Stan Hugill, a sea music historian known as the last of the working shantymen, who died in 1992 after a lifetime on sailing ships.

Last year, Hugill’s Crew visited a Yeovil school last year to teach 360 children how to sing shanties, and also organised a shanty evening at the Regal Theatre, Minehead, with guests of honour the Barnacle Buoys, from Cleveland.

Hugill’s Crew’s also presented its sound equipment to Elliot’s Touch, which raises money to help fund research into cardiomyopathy and mitochondria disease in children.

Elliot Stevens died in 2015, aged 13 months.

Eager to keep singing, some of the Crew have formed a new group, Rayzone, who will perform in retirement homes and other venues, singing shanties and music-hall songs, with proceeds going to Elliot’s Touch.