THOUSANDS of people enjoyed a wintry walk through the halls of one of Bicester's oldest churches, which was lined with more than 80 Christmas trees.

St Edburg's Church's annual tree festival was hosted over Friday, Saturday and Sunday to welcome in the festive season.

The annual event, now in its sixth year, attracted an estimated 2,700 adults and children, who admired the trees, which were sponsored and decorated by local companies, community groups and charities.

Matthew Clements of St Edburg's Church said: "The standard of decoration is noticeably high now – most of the trees benefitted from a lot of preparation, plus care in the actual decoration.

"We think this year was the best display that we have seen.

"The almost continuous live music was of a wide variety and the Christmas carols certainly added to the ambience of the event."

The team at the church in Old Place Yard estimated about 930 people headed to the event on Friday, plus another 1,150 people on Saturday.

Numbers were slightly lower on Sunday after the heavy snowfall clogged many of Bicester's streets.

Bicester town mayor, Les Sibley, officially opened the event on Friday.

He said: "It is a great community event which brings everyone together to enjoy the festive season.

"The 80 trees from local organisations were very good, there was such a big range of different designs and decorations.

"The church was packed out with trees everywhere apart from the pews, there wasn't a space to be had – it looked great."

The preparation, manning and clearing up was done by a large team of volunteers from the church, led by Victor and Janet Puddick, Adrian Thomas, with Gill Cornes organising the refreshments team.

The team also worked together to get the church back to its normal, tidy self by lunchtime on Monday.