ALTON’S Allen Gallery hosted a record-breaking charities fête on Saturday.

The annual event, which enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine, attracted the most charity stalls ever to its beautiful walled garden. It was attended by nearly 200 people.

New to the event this year was Anstey Junior School’s community room project, Alton food bank, Treloar School and College and the Friends of Alton Station. All of the groups presented attractive stalls with interesting items for sale, along with competitions and quizzes to entertain their visitors.

Alton Food Bank’s quiz invited visitors to guess the weight of a food parcel, Treloar School promoted its lottery, the Friends of Alton Station ran a raffle and Anstey Junior School had a range of intriguing items for sale as well as an intriguing competition in which visitors could guess where the queen was located on a map of Windsor Castle.

The offer was no less exciting from the returning charities. Mencap’s Greenfingers project offered a range of fresh produce, plants and attractive ‘woodwork for wildlife’ products, Alton and Petersfield MS Society had a broad spectrum of good quality

secondhand products, the Friends of the Curtis Museum and Allen Gallery had a quiz in which visitors were invited to work out the function of various historic items, the Alton Society had a challenging quiz about Alton, Alton’s Men’s Shed sold birdboxes and bird feeders they had made and Basingstoke and Alton Cardiac Rehab sold home-made cakes which sold, well, like hot cakes!

Gallery spokeswoman Sheila John said: “Several visitors remarked on the pleasant atmosphere in the garden while the stallholders appreciated the opportunity to raise the public’s awareness of their causes as well as the chance to meet like-minded people.”

The next event at The Allen Gallery, in Church Street will be its annual Family Fun Day from 11am to 3pm tomorrow (Saturday), with a host of stalls, games, competitions and activities for all age groups. Refreshments will be on sale at the Allen Gallery cafe.