Sweet treats bring family together in Whaley Bridge

Whaley Bridge gingerbread festival, childrens winner Charlotte Vickers and her sister Grace

The Uniting Church raised more than £900 for church funds and organiser Chris Mellor said the standard of little gingerbread houses was amazing.

She said: “We had 22 exhibits and they were all fabulous.

“Last year was our first year and people learned what worked and how best to support the structures so the standard this year surpassed anything we could of hoped for.”

Whaley Bridge gingerbread festival, Charlotte Vickers winning entry in the childrens category

Not everyone was entering traditional gingerbread houses into the competition and Karen Cridland took first place in the adult’s category with her spectacular ship.

The festival aims to bring families together and little ones were also able to enter the competition on Saturday and the winner in the seven to 12-year-old category was Charlotte Vickers.

Chris said: “Very often life gets in the way parents have to go food shopping or do cleaning and there isn’t enough good quality family time throughout the year so we wanted to give the opportunities for families to be families again.” Chris said the event will return but it may not be Christmas time.

She added: “After the festival finished we headed up to Kettlehulme for the lantern parade so it made it a very long day. A wonderful day of course, but maybe next time we plan the festival for when there isn’t so much going on.”