A HISTORY fair which celebrated a town's link with the sea proved to be a popular event for the second year running.

The Harwich History Fair, which was launched last year to share local history with residents and visitors of the town, was held over the weekend in the 1912 Centre.

About 400 people came to the event to see a range of photographs and documents, and hear illustrated talks by Harwich Society vice chairman David Whittle on the First World War in Harwich and Parkeston and its quay.

Many new items were on display and the upstairs was used as a photo gallery with enlarged photos featuring various events in Harwich with sea connections.

The event gave the opportunity for the Harwich Society to demonstrate the work carried out by the archivists, Dr David Male, Linda Morgan and Steve Delves.

Mr Whittle, who organised the event, said: "We were overwhelmed by the number of people who came along and by the interest they showed.

"A lot of work went into preparing this year's history fair but it was clearly well worth it."

Colin Farnell, Harwich Society chairman, said: "This year's history fair was an amazing success.

"David Whittle had to increase the frequency of his talks to meet demand and the response from visitors to all that was on display was remarkable.

"Harwich's History Fair is clearly already well established as an event to go straight in the diary."