Brave Bungay Teddy Bears zipped down a wire from the top of St Mary’s Church as the climax to this year’s festival Teddy Bears Picnic.

Following the picnic, once again sponsored by Fosters Solicitors, at the Castle Hills, the bears and their young carers walked in procession to the church for the event, and nearly 50 of the bears, plus the odd tiger, elephant, toucan and even an owl, braved the height to make the 110ft zipwire trip to the ground, released from the top of the tower by Martin Evans.

The event at the church was organised by the Friends of St Mary’s, and refreshments were provided in the church.

Martin Evans, of the Friends of Bungay St Mary’s Church, apologised to those children who were unable to see their bears take the zip wire drop.

“We would like to apologise to those youngsters who brought their teddies to Bungay St. Mary’s Church last Saturday afternoon hoping to see them fly down from the tower on a zip line but failed to do so. In fact despite the published times in the programme, this event was intended to follow on from the Teddy Bears’ Picnic on Castle Hills.

“Once the toys arrived with us, we began the zipping and some 50 teddies, doggies, cats, ducks, tigers, owls and others beyond description fearlessly flew down from the 110 ft tower and received their bravery certificates,” he said.

“Once this was over, we waited for any nervous stragglers but as none arrived, we wrongly assumed the event was over and dismantled the precipitous zip.

“When it was too late, we found a few others that had forgone the Picnic and come hoping to fly. We promise to do better next year. We still have some certificates and if your owners would care to contact us via the Journal, we will gladly send you one, as we know you would not have hesitated to take the leap,” added Mr Evans.

• Suffolk author Sarah Ridgard was the guest speaker at the Bungay Festival meeting of the Bungay Good Read group .

She spoke about her first novel, Seldom Seen, set in rural Suffolk, telling her large audience how the idea of the book was conceived and how it finally came to fruition after 10 years. She also read extracts from the novel, brought humour to her talk, and afterwards answered several questions.

Festival closing ceremony _ see centre pages. Bungay Means Business _ Page 35.