MALVERN'S favourite donkeys will be coming back to the town next weekend for the annual May Day weekend event.

Alfie, Peter, Bluebell and Daisy will be having their coats brushed and manes bedecked with ribbons ready for the ceremony at the town's historic Abbey Archway.

The event, on Sunday, May 6, starts at noon, with an animal blessing which is expected to attract many local pets and their owners.

The blessing will be led by Brother Peter Coombes, Rev David Wetton and Rev Val Needham, who are joined this year by Rev Sheila Simmonds, a volunteer chaplain at St Richard’s Hospice and Malvern Community Hospital.

After the blessing, there will be poems, music and magic tricks, before the event moves to the Malvhina Spout on Belle Vue Terrace.

Rev Needham said: "Spring is such a wondrous time of the year. Who has not stopped to gaze wide eyed at a bunch of first violets peeping from a rocky crevice or a bank suddenly burst forth with primroses?

"The hills and the town itself evoke a sense of timeless splendour and so each year I try to find more and more ways to share that sense of wonder with all who come with us on Mayday."

"We are hoping that lots of children will join in with us so we can share the joy and crown our young May Queen, Grace Giudicotti-Poplawska.

This year’s May Day event is in aid of the Penny Ha’Penny Horse and Pony Rescue Centre, at Suckley, near Malvern, and the Malvern Spa Association.

Rev Needham said: "With the team resplendent in colourful costumes and headdresses, our May Day celebration and ceremony aims to evoke the hope, excitement, fun, warmth and expansiveness of spirit that accompanies the arrival of spring."