In total there were more than 300 separate trees in the church beautifully decorated by local schools, businesses and organisations.

Rev Peter Hooper, curate of the team parish of Melton Mowbray, said there were more then 200 trees for people to wander around, with more trees on the window sills.

He said: "Each year the creativity of the trees increases. It's just incredible. We encouraged more people to do the window sills because we ran out of floor space to get the bigger trees in.

"It's truly amazing how far some people have travelled. On Sunday I met people who had travelled on coaches from Manchester, Sheffield, Norfolk, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Suffolk. About seven coaches came from Manchester not just for the festival but for the whole weekend."

Local school pupils were among the many visitors and were given a quiz to find things on different trees. Youngsters from Sherard and Grove Primary Schools were at also at the festival on Friday when BBC East Midlands Today did some filming.

Money raised from the event, which was held from Thursday to Tuesday, will go to church funds.

Rev Cooper added: "This is our fifth year and we will definitely be doing it again. We've had a tremendous response and a lot or businesses and schools will take their trees after the festival and have them as their own trees in