A MINI apple festival in Chepstow has been hailed a success by organisers.

Families flocked to The Drill Hall for the annual Chepstow Apple Day event on Sunday hosted by the town council and Transition Chepstow.

Visitors to the venue watched cider making demonstrations and were able to taste the many different varies of apples on display.

They were also able to pick from 15 different varieties of locally-grown apples that were on sale, of which just under half a tonne were sold on the day.

Visitors were also encouraged to bring along apples from their own gardens to be identified by expert Mike Porter from the Marches Apple Network.

There were also activities for children such as making a bird feeder out of an apple and an apple identification quiz which was won by nine year-old Herbie Perry.

Councillor Ned Heywood, who runs the Drill Hall and organises the event, said the favourite variety of the day, out of the 75 on display, was Ashmead’s Kernel, a variety discovered by Dr Ashmead in a garden in Gloucestershire in the 1700s.

The event was founded by the two groups, which planted 200 apple trees in and around Chepstow for community orchards and to publicise the many different varieties of apples.

Cllr Heywood said: “The event was a huge success.”

“People enjoyed tastings, bringing in their own apples for identification and having their apples pressed into juice.”