FINE weather greeted villagers celebrating the age-old ceremony of rushbearing in Great and Little Urswick.

This year's rush queen, Lily Hodgkinson, carried a shepherd's crook decorated with rushes from Urswick Tarn as she helped lead the procession, accompanied by purple-caped sword bearers, attendants and last year's rush queen, Milly Ritchie.

Nicola Troughton, a teacher at Low Furness CE Primary School in Great Urswick, who helped organise Sunday's parade, said "the whole community" came together for the 113th rushbearing.

St Mary and St Michael's Church, Urswick, is one of just a handful of Cumbrian churches to keep the tradition alive, including Grasmere, Ambleside, Warcop and Musgrave. It recalls the days when rushes would be gathered and strewn on the church's mud floor ready for winter, said Mrs Troughton.

Brownies, Dalton Town Band, school children and families joined the parade, carrying rushes and hoops made at special workshops and singing hymns, before a church service and the traditional refreshments of gingerbread and cups of tea back at school.

"If people are not walking in parade, they come out from their houses and stand in their gardens and wave," said Mrs Troughton. "It's important, especially in a small rural community, to keep these traditions going."

Rush queen Lily will have her name embroidered on the rushbearing banner, and she was presented with an engraved silver trinket box.