A century of village life was celebrated on Sunday when Shenley held its annual Village Fete and Carnival procession.

Despite being rescheduled from a month ago because of bad weather, the day was a great success and hundreds of people came along to the Harris Lane playing fields to enjoy a traditional village fete on a hot summer Sunday.

'It was very well attended, I think there were more people there this year than last year,' said Paul Racibowski, the day's organiser.

The Shenley Women's Institute won first place in the Carnival Procession. Their president, Gillian Snow, said: 'We chose morris dancing as the theme for the float because it seemed like an activity which would fit in. We all had a great day, it went off very well.'

A float put together by the Boswell family from King Edward Road in Shenley that showed what life would have been like for children attending Shenley School at the start of the last century, and was awarded second place, and a futuristic float complete with space travellers and a rocket ship was given third place after being entered by the Partridge Family from Well End, who wanted to show what the future held for the village.

There was a fancy dress competition for the under-fives and even the village's pets got a moment in the spotlight with more than a hundred entering the village dog show, run by the First Shenley Scout Group.

A variety of dogs were entered for categories including dogs with the most gorgeous looks, dogs who look most like their owners, best rescue dogs and dogs the judges would most like to take home.

Regulars from the Queen Adelaide pub beat customers from the King William IV pub at a tug-of-war competition, before the village's children took their turn on the rope.

Shenley Fete and Carnival Committee has not worked out how much money was raised on the day, but will distribute any profits to voluntary groups in the village.