Christmas fun in Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth

Cars lined the streets into the town as people packed in to see the lights and enjoy stalls, a funfair, Father Christmas and carol singing at Saturday's Christmas fair.

Milner Whiteman, Mayor of Much Wenlock, did the honours by switching on the lights.

He said the event proved so popular that cars lined the streets almost into Broseley as the town had a "brilliant day".

"Everything went well," he added. "The entertainment was great and someone who had come from Oswestry said it was the best switch-on that they had been to.

"It's hard to say how many people were there, but there must have been thousands. There were cars parking all the way up the Broseley Road.

"I would like to say congratulations to the committee who organised it."

Stalls offering a variety of goods were selling out of stock,while all day there were queues to get a present from Santa.

The switch-on took place at 4.20pm, and carols were sung with the help of the local church choir and Abraham Darby Academy Band.

Councillor Whiteman added: "I went to the church where Father Christmas was giving out presents and there was a queue right down the aisle. That was at about 10.30am and he still had a huge queue when I went in later on at about 3.30pm.

"I don't know whether he ever got rid of the queue or not. There was also a stall owner who told me that he had sold pork from three pigs and had to get some more stock delivered. I think everyone had a fantastic day and it went really well."

And Bridgnorth was busy yesterday when more than 80 stalls were set up along the High Street for a Christmas Market, while a Victorian Market was held in St Leonard's Church.

The market opened at 10am, with stall holders and shoppers pausing an hour later to watch as dozens of Santas ran through the town as part of the annual Bridgnorth Santa Dash.

The run was organised by Bridgnorth Runners Club in aid of Shropshire Smile, raising runds for maternity units across the county.

Brian Davies, from Bridgnorth Promotions, who organised the market, said: "We've had lots of glowing comments about the event. Everyone enjoyed the selection of traders and things happening in the street with the carol singing and the Santa run and so on.

"We had around 80 traders selling Christmas trees, wonderful decorations made, beautiful gifts, handmade glass items, ethnic clothing including some wonderful knitwear from Mexico – all sorts of things.

"We had five charities using the event to raise funds and I've already had emails from people saying they expect they've raised £2,000 for charity.

"We won't know the exact figure for about a week but it looks to have been very successful.

"It was the event of the year for us. If you could double the length of the High Street I think we would have filled it.

"We try to work with St Leonard's Church so that we complement each other's events, so to see so many people going to the church on Sunday when we were active was wonderful.

"The weather was so kind to us and I heard that the car parks in town were full all day.

"The market's become a major social event where families come together and enjoy the event, and for charities to do some fundraising. When you see people doing that it makes it all worthwhile."