GLORIOUS choral music filled Edington for the whole of last week as the 61st Edington Music Festival stunned thousands of visitors.

Founded on the goodwill of the participants and the generosity of attendees, the free festival played host to seven days of spellbinding music performed by some of the most distinguished choristers and organists from across the country.

This year’s festival, which took place in the Edington Priory Church, took its theme from the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from ‘As You Like It’ to tie in with the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

The festival's marketing officer, Anne Curtis, said: “It was absolutely splendid, both musically and from the point of view of the atmosphere.

"As always, the music was of the highest quality and fitted the theme beautifully. We were also very lucky with the weather.

"The Friday Requiem Mass, for which Mozart’s Requiem provided the framework, welcomed the church's biggest congregation in a long time with around 400 people in attendance.

"Next year we would like to see even more people attend the festival, particularly local people who may not know about it. We will always have space to accommodate more visitors."

Choral Evensong held on Wednesday afternoon included this year’s Festival Commission by Francis Pott, which was recorded live by BBC Radio 3 and is available on BBc iPlayer.

Later that evening, the ever popular Musical Evening and Supper took place on the Parish Field, and raised money for various village charities chosen by the organisers.

First held in 1956, the festival was founded by Reverend Ralph Dudley and David Calcutt in response to concerns that church choirs were being cut to save on money and in a bid to keep the tradition of choral singing alive.

Now, 61 years on, it is one of the oldest annual events of church music in the world and this year drew visitors from as far as Austria.