THE era of Victorian England was recreated for an entire day in King's Somborne as a jubilee celebration and a contribution to Local History Week.

The organisers were the Som-borne and District Society and celebrations started at 9.30am with church bells summoning people to the village hall for maypole dancing and whipping tops.

Society chairman, Terry Mackintosh, provided the welcoming speech, the WI, in costume, opened up a Victorian stall and visitors started to unlock the answers to a quiz which ran all day.

Resident Gordon Pearson, spoke on the Victorian restoration of the village church and Philip Ray took visitors on a guided tour of the village. Somborne celebrities were described by Elizabeth Proudman and Stan Roberts provided an evocative magic lantern show.

Local historian John Marchment evoked memories of the long-gone Sprat and Winkle railway line and Cyril Pigott took everyone back to the sometimes dismal days of a Victorian school child.

A rollicking night at a Victorian music hall and a suitably hearty meal of steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes, served by local wenches, ended the day with the strains of Rule Britannia filling the village hall.