Easter fun at Gressenhall

Overcast weather failed to put a dampener on spirits at a traditional Easter fair near Dereham yesterday.

More than 2,000 people visited Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse to sample a raft of attractions and soak up the Easter atmosphere.

Highlights included Perrett's traditional fairground, which was packed with time-honoured rides like the helter skelter, cake walk, swing boats, carousal and a hoopla stand.

Elsewhere Art Attack sessions saw youngsters crafting their own bonnets and toppers, which they then don for an afternoon marching parade round the grounds.

Other attractions included live re-enactments of the workhouse's history, story telling from the Mad Hatter, music from the Smokehouse Blue Marching Jazz Band and a hog roast and barbecue. One stall, Fun With Ferrets, invited punters to guess which pipe a live ferret would emerge from.

Duty manager and event organiser Rose Sheen said: 'It's gone brilliantly, the car park is overflowing and the children's activities have been full to bursting.

'Something like this helps get the spring off to a really good start. It's been a long winter and people have been tied up inside; this gives them a chance to get out for something special.'

Elsewhere the farmhouse hosted an array of attractions promoting an eco-friendly outlook, including puppetry performances from the Nutmeg Puppet Company and a stall inviting youngsters to write down one pledge towards the natural environment, and then hang it on a tree.

Sustainability project officer Hannah Jackson said: 'People are mainly pledging to feed the birds or make bug homes. It's a prime time of the year, as the wildlife world is waking up, to pledge five minutes a day to improve your local wildlife.'

Among the happy visitors were Phil and Sarah Taylor, 39, from Taverham who took their children Alice, 11, and two-year-old Daniel.

Mr Taylor, 44, said: 'It was good fun, there's so much to do you don't know where to start. I've never seen the car park so packed.'