A HEAVY scent of mulled wine greeted shoppers at Christ Church’s annual Christmas market.

Charity stalls packed the Old Town church and community centre. Children could meet Father Christmas, while families got the chance to nose around the bell tower complete with its ring of 10 bells dating back to the mid-1920s.

Christ Church's own team of hand bell ringers kept shoppers entertained in the community centre, as volunteers served up homemade mince pies.

Sue Webb, from Old Town, was at the event with her two foster children: “The children love it. It’s somewhere lovely to take the kids. It’s not expensive and it’s somewhere they can come and spend their pocket money and see what they can win.”

Alison Pearson, 44, from Lawn, said: “It’s local, we’re supporting these local charities.”

The Christmas market was the 11th to have been organised by the Friends of Christ Church.

Caroline Pitt, chairman of the Friends, said: “We are keen to encourage people to use our beautiful building, which is probably the only Grade II* listed building in Swindon still in use for its original purpose after more than 160 years.

“The community centre by contrast was only opened five years ago and is a beautiful modern building. We want to facilitate the friendship between charities, church-based groups and the local community.

“Recent changes to the church have made the building warmer and lighter and more accessible. There is a wonderful new heating system with radiators, better lighting and a new wooden floor across the church.”

Stephanie Trinci, of the Old Town Rotary Club, had one of the best spots in the whole market manning a stall stuffed with soft toys in the nave of the Victorian church.

She said: “We’re raising money to fund a teacher for the school we support in Desai, Kenya. It’s one of the poorest areas in Kenya and we need to raise £600 for a teacher.

“Today, we’ve got about 150 soft toys on the stall but in total we’ve collected 800 toys. We'll be at the Commonweal Christmas market next week.” The stall, which got children to pick a name out of a tin to be rewarded with the toy bearing that name, was proving popular with the youngsters: “Some of them say, ‘That’s just what I wanted’, but others say they wanted a different toy.”