A VILLAGE in the New Forest was invaded by 890 knitted angels in the run up to Christmas.

Residents of Hordle woke to the sight of the festive gifts last week, with them lining trees, hedges and fences.

A dedicated team of volunteers went out in the wind and the rain on the evening of Thursday, December 14 to put them on display.

Before darkness fell the following day every single one of the free Christmas novelties had been claimed.

The source of the angels was the members of All Saints Church, who had been working on producing them since February.

The initial idea for the project came from Ali Taylor, wife of parish vicar Rev Paul Taylor.

After seeing a similar initiative online at www.christmasangel.net, she challenged the church family of Hordle to knit 500 angels for the village.

Ali said: "I spoke to the church about the message behind doing the angels, gave out knitting pattern to follow and set a target for them to reach.

"Every few months I spoke to the congregation to remind them and the angels gradually started to come in.

"To get 890 angels for a small village is incredible.

"Two ladies, Viv Binns and Jo Kirby, knitted 400 between them. They must have worked so hard all year.

"There was one pattern, but everyone put their own little touch on it so they were all unique."

The majority of the angels were split between the hedge that runs between All Saints Church and Hordle School, and the shops at the other end of the village.

Rev Taylor added: "It has been a wonderful project to show love and Christmas spirit to our community."

After the success of the angel project, Ali said she has already had ideas of what the village could work on next.

"I would love to do something for Remembrance Sunday," Ali said.

"This has been such a success and it would be great to do something amazing for the occasion."