APPLE trees were awoken and evil spirits scared away during a wassailing ceremony in Pill.

Residents were invited to the Watchhouse Hill orchard on Saturday to take part in the West Country tradition aimed at securing a good crop of apples for the next year.

Lanterns and torches lit the way for a procession to the orchard, where toast soaked in cider was placed in the tree branches to increase their crop and pans were banged to ward off evil spirits.