There were apples aplenty at the third annual Trowbridge Apple Festival on Saturday with hundreds of visitors turning out for the event at Courtfield House in Trowbridge.

Organised by The BIG Community Grow, the free event included apple identification and tasting, live music, morris dancers, locally produced food and drink, Dave Hickory’s magic show, crafts, games and apple pressing.

The event also had demonstrations from expert fruit growers and gardeners Richard Cripps and John Nash and the annual apple pie competition, which included a prize sponsored by Leykers Coffee Central.

Mel Jacob and Jacky Good developed The BIG Community Grow to support and develop projects in schools and community centres, providing advice and practical help.

Mrs Jacob said: “The event went brilliantly and we were very lucky with the weather, as it had been raining quite a bit in the build up. We had a fantastic turnout and there was probably twice as many people than we had last year.

“It is getting bigger and bigger every year and everyone I spoke to said they really enjoyed it. There were lots of people I haven’t seen before and it was great to have so many families as well.

“I was making apple juice all day and it was incredibly popular, with some people bringing in their own apples to make juice from. Our apples experts also identified some unusual varieties of apples.

“The apple bobbing went down well again with the children and we had lots more entries for the apple pie contest this year. It was really fantastic and we are already looking forward to doing it all again next year.”

The date for next year’s Trowbridge Apple Festival is October 10. For more information, visit www.bigcommunity grow.org/home/trowbridge-apple-festival