Armed with spades churchgoers and villagers turned out at the Beanacre Cricket Field on the weekend to rewild the recreation area by planting scores of trees for the Queen’s Green Canopy project.

To mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year, the Woodland Trust is administering the project with the aim of planting three million trees throughout the UK and a map of where they have been planted.

St Barnabas Church in Beanacre has embraced this initiative and has combined it with rewilding of the outer recreation area of the cricket field.

On Saturday morning, 45 adults, some with the help of their children, set about planting hundreds of trees to supplement the efforts of Bowerhill Beaver Scouts aged six to eight on Friday evening.

Beanacre resident Elizabeth Martin had managed to get hundreds of whips, the correct term for the young trees, from the Woodland Trust and spent the morning helping the volunteers in the mass planting.

Villager Stanford Cole, who coordinated the event, gave a planting demonstration to the volunteers who turned out for the community event.

He said: ”It was a remarkable community event with people of all ages taking part. Tea coffee and cakes were laid on in the Church Hall for refreshments for our volunteers.

“Thanks to Woodland Trust and OVO Energy we were able to do our bit in contributing to the Queen’s Green Canopy project to mark her Platinum Jubilee.”

Among the selection of trees that were planted were English Oak, Rowan, Wild Cherry, Silver Birch and Hawthorn.