A NURSERY rhyme theme proved a smash-hit as visitors flocked to savour the horticultural delights on show at the Ottery St Mary Flower Festival.

A NURSERY rhyme theme proved a smash-hit as visitors flocked to savour the horticultural delights on show at the Ottery St Mary Flower Festival, which ended on Monday.

Strong crowds, peaking at 580 on Saturday, were amazed by a variety of displays detailing favourites from Little Jack Horner to Humpty dumpty at the parish church.

Organiser Carol Bennett said: "There has been a wonderful interest, people came back a second time and brought friends. We had over three hundred people most days and comments in the visitors' book have been outstanding, saying it was the 'best ever' and 'thanks for bringing back childhood memories'.

The displays did bring back a lot of memories for people, we had children coming in, looking at the nursery rhymes and then spontaneously starting to sing them, then the parents joined in. It was a wonderful atmosphere for everybody.

The actual work was stunning, and so clever, I was just amazed with every single one of them, the imagination from the ladies was fantastic.

Hopefully we brought people together in the town and from further-a- field and I hope visitors have gone away with a nice feel about Ottery but also the community got something from it.