A TEAM of volunteers ensured there was no dancing on ice as the annual Chepstow Mari Lwyd and Wassail went ahead on Saturday.

They made a large area of lower Chepstow safe for dancers, a collection of weird creatures and the public for the celebration of Welsh and English traditions.

Tim Ryan, one of the organisers, said: "There was a great voluntary effort to make sure it could go ahead.

"We had a smaller crowd than usual probably because of the weather but there were a lot of new faces.

"Many of them were people in their 20s who had not seen it before and they were completely blown away by it."

Mr Ryan, a former Wyedean School teacher, said the Wassail in the Castle Dell where people joined hands around the trees in the was "magical".

There were performances by Chepstow-based Border Morris group The Widders and the meeting on the Wye Bridge of the English Wassail and the Welsh Mari Lwyd or Grey Mare.

Mick Widder of The Widders said: "This is a unique event. Nowhere else in the world do you have this happening on a border.

•See this week's Chepstow & Caldicot News for more photographs.