Hundreds of people braved the wind, rain and cold to celebrate a town’s magical Christmas fair.

Crowds mingled with 13th century characters and famous witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins at Manningtree’s Magical Christmas on Friday. 

Organiser Jenine Collier, of the Manningtree Chamber of Trade, said: “It was an excellent night.

“The rain stopped bang on six o’clock when the event started and started again after it had ended.

“I don’t know if it was better than last year but everybody has been raving about it and people are saying it should happen again next year so there has been a lot of positive feedback which is nice.

“I was running around and getting very nervous and seeing all the bad bits but I’ve been very happy with what people were saying about it.”

More than 500 people attended the event which also featured street magicians, craft stalls, cooking demonstrations and traditional music.