A village and its surroundings have received a spring clean from civic-minded locals fed up of seeing litter lying around.

The Cornwood Parish Spring Clean was organised by Nicholas Downing, after he noticed an increasing problem with rubbish in the local lanes.

With assistance and support from Cornwood Parish Council and South Hams District Council, and publicity in the Cornwood and Lutton Village Magazine, Nicholas recruited a group of volunteers and got to work.

He said: "I am a keen runner and as I’d run the roads and lanes of the parish I noticed a lot of litter on the sides of the roads. I was very sad to see this and felt something had to be done so organised the ’Cornwood Parish Spring Clean’ to get the village tidy."

The day started with a quick briefing fuelled by tea, coffee and biscuits courtesy of the village Coffee Stop, before the team hit the streets.

Nicholas said: "We managed to fill more than 30 bin bags with rubbish and on our jaunt around the village came across some fairly random items, ranging from a tractor tyre inner tube, bottles, varying items of clothing, endless drink cans, a wood saw, a stapler, an office chair and more!

"We finished at the Cornwood Inn for some food and drink and had a first and second prize for the most unusual item found by the grown ups. First prize for a set of shop scales and second for a pair of ladies knickers. For the children the prize for most unusual was for some medicine and car wing mirrors."

Nicholas praised the "amazing" volunteers for their hard work during the day. He added: "I would like to finish off with a massive thank you to all who have help me in this venture. To the parish council for their assistance in making it possible, SHDC for supplying the litter picking equipment, the Cornwood Inn for the food and drink, the Coffee Stop for our pre-tidy brew and to all of my enthusiatic locals, who did such brilliant work in helping me on my quest."