COMMUNITY spirit in the village of Heddington, near Calne, has never been stronger, with this year's annual Harvest Festival at The Ivy Inn raising an amazing £1,805 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

"The festival has been going for 65 years," said lifelong Heddington man Gerald 'Duffy' Brown. "There's an auction of produce, cakes, all sorts of things."

The Ivy's latest landlord, Freddy Prettyjohn, has kept up the tradition of hosting the festival at the pub, and was among the group who handed over the cheque to WAA on Monday.

"We always give the festival proceeds to a charity. Last year WAA got half, and this year, because it has been used in the village five or six times, we wanted to give all the money to them," Mr Brown explained.

The auctioneer for the night was local Pat Murphy, with Mr Brown, Kate Pearce and Geoffrey Brown acting as his assistants.