The winners of the 2017 Chester Cathedral Christmas Tree Festival have been announced.
The Adrian Derbyshire Foundation and Birkenhead School have scooped the top prizes.
The festival, which returned for a fifth year in 2017, ran throughout November and December and featured more than 50 majestic Christmas trees decorated by schools and businesses from across Chester and Cheshire.
Chester Cathedral welcomed more than 43,000 visitors during the seven week period of the festival and more than 4,000 votes were cast in the festival’s favourite tree ballot.
The winners will be presented with an engraved trophy and will receive passes for the Chester Cathedral Falconry and Nature Gardens.
The festival raised a magnificent £11,500 for chosen local charity the Ultrasound Breast Cancer Scanner Appeal at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Kathy Kenney, community and events fundraiser for the Countess of Chester Hospital, said: “We were absolutely delighted to be chosen as the Festival of Trees’ charity this year. This will go a long way towards our Ultrasound Breast Scanner Appeal.
“Thank you to all who came and voted for their favourite tree and a big thank you to all our lovely volunteers who were happy to talk about the appeal and the trees and help sell voting slips.
“A particular mention must go towards Gloria Kenney who knitted decorations for the Kenneymoore tree, which were then sold for a donation for the appeal.”
Canon precentor at Chester Cathedral, Jeremy Dussek, said: “The Christmas Tree Festival is a wonderful addition to the cathedral at Christmas. We were very keen to do something that helped us to engage with the local community and welcome people into the building during such a special time of the year.
“We were wowed by the creativity of all of our participants and our visitors thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of the trees.
“We are also very pleased that we have been able to support the Ultrasound Breast Cancer Scanner Appeal at the Countess of Chester Hospital through this initiative.
“The festival will definitely be back next year - and we already have reservations for 2018 trees!” he added.
Schools and businesses wishing to reserve a Christmas tree for the 2018 festival should contact Sue Petranca at Chester Cathedral on 01244 500961 or sue.petranca@chestercathedral.com.
