Celebrating over four decades of the Village Pump Folk Festival

Four years on it had become so popular that they decided to put on a weekend folk event and the Village Pump Folk Festival was born.

John Alderslade, festival director, and the mastermind behind the inaugural event said: "We were at the club one night and realised that there were no festivals we were interested in going to in the west country.

"We wanted to run a festival that we all wanted to go to and we are still running it today for the same reasons."

In the early days the festival was run at The Lamb, but after the 1979 event it became clear that it had outgrown the site and it moved to a larger location at the picturesque Manor Farm at Stowford in 1980.

At the seventh Village Pump Folk Festival, the first year at Stowford, musicians such as Johnny Silvo, Diz Disley and Henry Davis took to the main stage.

In 1983 the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary with Johnny Silvo returning and popular west country entertainer Fred Wedlock and the Maddy Prior Band among the line-up.

At the 16th Pump Festival in 1989, surprise guest TV star Phil Cool did a warm up spot before going on to his TV show. That year The Levellers performed and went on to become the top-of-the-bill act they are now.

Over the years big names joined the line-up such as Bob Geldolf and The Proclaimers, who have played at the Pump five times between them.

Among the other top names are the Pump's patrons, Show of Hands, arguably the top folk act in the country, who have filled the Royal Albert Hall three times.

At the 40th anniversary event in 2013 The Proclaimers, Steeleye Band and Steve Knightley were headliners.

Since 2012, the festival, which attracts up to 3,000 people a year, has been held at White Horse Country Park under the gaze of the chalk horse.

The festival goes from strength to strength – it might not be the country's biggest but it's renowned as being the most friendly.