Residents of one Shropshire village took to the streets – to mark a 223rd wedding anniversary.

Children donned dress from the 18th century for a wedding pageant to mark the anniversary of the 1786 marriage of a local squire in Aston on Clun.

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It was all part of the Shropshire village’s annual celebrations on Arbor Day – the last Sunday of May – and a historic fertility ritual.

Arbor Day celebrations date back hundreds of years when a tree was decorated for fertility. It is said cuttings from the arbor tree was given to young brides to ensure a good-sized family.

Celebrations have died out across most of Great Britain – but the tradition is kept alive in Aston on Clun.

The ancient festival included morris dancing and food and entertainment including face painting, dancing, circus fun, stalls and childrens’ races on the village green.

Radio Shropshire’s Jim Hawkins addressed the crowd before the Arbor Tree Festival Song was sung.

The festival survives in Aston on Clun thanks to squire John Marston and his wife Mary Carter, who married on Arbor Day 1786.

They were so impressed with the celebrations, they set up a trust fund to pay for the care of the village’s Arbor Tree – a black poplar – and the flags used to decorate it.

Yesterday’s celebrations, amid glorious sunshine, began with morris dancing under the tree.

The children, dressed in period costumes, then paraded to the tree, led by a piper, where the festival song was aired.

The tree was then blessed, before Mr Hawkins addressed the crowd.

The children then scattered flower petals around the tree before being led by the piper back to the village hall.

Aston on Clun’s Arbor Tree is grown from a cutting from the original tree which was toppled in a storm in 1995.