JOIN The Ridgeway Singers & Band for an evening of West Gallery carols, Dorset songs, dance tunes, and local poems and stories to celebrate the coming of midwinter and the festive season.

They will perform a Christmas matinee concert at St Mary’s Church in Bridport at 4pm on Sunday, December 15.

Formed in 2013 by Artsreach as part of the South Dorset Ridgeway project, the group specialises in performing Dorset music old and new, in the tradition made famous by Thomas Hardy in Under the Greenwood Tree.

The singers are accompanied by musicians playing stringed and woodwind instruments, and the concerts evoke old-fashioned country Christmases when the entertainment was local and home-made.

The group is led by renowned serpent player and member of the Mellstock Band Phil Humphries, and the popular actor and folk musician Tim Laycock.

New to the repertoire are a Christmas Anthem from an old book found at a car boot sale in Bridport, and a setting by Phil Humphries of William Barnes’s poem Rustic Childhood, as well as arrangements for the band of more tunes by the late Nick Dunckley.

Tickets are available via www.ridgewaysingersandband.org or call 01305 262159.

It costs £12 for adults and £6 for under 18s.