THOUSANDS of people lined the streets of Wroughton on Saturday to watch the carnival procession pass by.

Residents sat in camping chairs outside their homes waiting with bags full of copper coins to give to the participants as they marched by.

Wroughton Youth Football Club wore England football kits and carried a banner stating “Capello should of picked us”(sic), while staff and pupils from Wroughton Junior School dressed up as characters from the musical Bugsy Malone.

Tim Burton’s recent creations, including Alice In Wonderland and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, were popular themes and various dance groups performed as part of the procession.

Carnival chairman Paul Russell said the turn-out had been better than he expected and they had hoped to raise about £7,000 for the carnival committee’s two chosen charities, Prospect Hospice and the Wiltshire Air Ambulance, as well as some other local organisations.

He said: “It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It’s so nice to see communities being able to come together and create what we have here.

“It’s been a brilliant day. It’s nice that once a year the Wroughton community can get together and enjoy the sunshine and have a wonderful time.

“The procession was very good and it was good to see mums dressed as dads and dads dressed as mums.

“The effort that goes in is incredible.

“I think that is shown by the response the got from the crowd.”

Mr Russell said the cost of running the carnival was about £11,000, including the cost of the procession and the running of the stage throughout the rest of the day.

But he said: “Last year we raised £7,000. We would hope to match that – we always hope to do what we did last year.

“That is very common. The support from the people around the village is just incredible.”

He said that even though events ran behind schedule as the procession took longer than scheduled, there was still enough contingency time to allow for it.

“At the end of the day the community supports these things,” he said.

No matter what is going on you can see a field of people enjoying themselves.”