HUNDREDS of people bartered for a bargain during an antiques market in Halesworth on Sunday, which raised more than �5,000for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

HUNDREDS of people bartered for a bargain during an antiques market in Halesworth on Sunday, which raised more than �5,000

for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Nearly 90 dealers and stallholders set up camp in the town's Thoroughfare ready for the 17th annual antiques street fair - the majority from Norfolk and Suffolk. And while the sun shone down, visitors haggled for a variety of items including jewellery, china, ornaments and glassware.

Organiser Miles Lambert said: “It was a great day; the weather was fine the dealers did well themselves and sold a lot.”

Each of the dealers paid �40 for a pitch, which will be donated to the charity, and generous shopkeepers who opened their doors also gave a donation.

A bucket collection saw the total swell to around �5,000.

Mr Lambert said: “I worked for the British Heart Foundation for a long time before I retired. The most local office now is in Tunbridge

Wells so we wanted to support something more local.

“I liked the idea of the air ambulance because it does a hell of a good job.”

Mr Lambert organises the event with three others on a small committee, and said he would continue to organise the event for “as long as he lives”.

“I'd like to say a really

big thank-you to everyone

who helped raise the money,

particularly Jackie Griggs, who puts in a lot of work, and Ken Skipper,” he said.