YELLOW plastic ducks flooded a village river to raise money for girl guides.

Manningtree guides raised £483 from the popular Dedham Duck Race on Bank Holiday Monday.

The event sees spectators pay £1 for a duck before huge tubs of the plastic foul are tipped off the bridge into the River Stour.

Michelle Stimpson, of 1st Lawford Guides, said: "I would like to thank all the girls, parents and leaders who helped on the day.

"And a special thank you to Carole and Steve Vickers who kindly volunteered to help after our usual on water team were unavailable.

"They responded to our request for help posted on the Manningtree Shout Out Facebook page, and gave up hours of their day to help, including putting the finish flags up, doing some "trial run test ducks", and helping to collect the ducks at the end from the water. Steve also fell in." The money raised for Manningtree District Girlguiding will go towards helping to pay for storage for guiding equipment, which we are struggling to store.

Michelle added: "On that note, if anyone can help provide or sponsor storage local to Manningtree we would be most grateful for the help.

"We are likely to resort to a paid storage company as have so far been unsuccessful in finding somewhere to house all our camping equipment etc."

Lawford guides raised £99 through cake sales on the day.

The winning duck was number 144 - winning £50.