A WINTER Wassail night of “spirit warding, superstition and fun” went down a treat at National Trust’s Swan Barn Farm in Haslemere, last Friday.

Around 200 enthusiasts took part in the ancient ceremony to help ensure the apple orchard will have a bumper crop this year.

Swan Barn’s popular annual wassail is a traditional way of giving a good luck blessing and banishing any evil spirits to promote a happy, healthy and fruitful year. The fun started with a torchlit procession to find “Old Man Apple”, the most ancient tree.

Wassailers sang and read poems in the orchard before offering traditional good luck blessings of toast dipped in cider to the trees.

They then headed back to the base camp to enjoy apple juice, cider and burgers produced on site by the Black Down Estate and listen to live music by local band The Burning Glass.

“It went really well,” head ranger Dave Eliot said. “The weather was not exactly with us and it was pretty muddy but the rain cleared and almost 200 people came. The event seems to build every year. It was really nice to see everyone enjoying the orchard and taking part in a community event.

“Our apples certainly seem grow well. We have pretty good harvest and produce even more cider every year. All the staff take part in the wassail and quite a few songs were sung and poems read.”