A winter wonderland descended upon Egremont as Santa and his helpers brought festive fun to a fire service fundraiser.

Crew members at Egremont Fire Station organised a fun day for children with a visit from Santa and an appearance from Welephant - the fire service mascot.

The day raised £1,053 for the Fire Fighters Charity and a further £500 donation is set to come from Cleator Moor's Nisa store.

The festive event included fairground rides, a postbox for children to send their Christmas wishes and face painting. And after visiting Santa the youngsters were presented with a Christmas selection box.

Now the firefighters, along with Santa and Welephant, will deliver the remaining selection boxes to children at the West Cumberland Hospital.

"We've done really well, the support was fantastic," said David McDowell, crew manager at the station. "There were queues out of the door and the kids enjoyed meeting Santa and Welephant."

"A lot of hard work has gone in to organising it but it was certainly worth it, we've had a good response as well. I think we'll be doing it again next year, everyone involved got a buzz from it.

"It's good to put something back into the community for the kids, especially seeing their faces light up when they came into the grotto."

Mr McDowell also thanked the local community and shops, including B&M, Tescos, Morrisons, B&Q, Carpetright and Nisa, for their support and donations while £50 will be donated to Egremont Crab Fair committee for its help with the event.

The Fire Fighters Charity is the UK's leading provider of services that enhance quality of life for serving and retired firefighters, fire personnel and their families.

Egremont Crew members recently held a charity car wash to collect over £500 for the charity. And staff at the station previously won a national competition when they managed to collect a record-breaking 7.7 tonnes of textiles during January, raising £1,700.