In pictures: Hundreds enjoy Steyning Food & Drink Festival 2023 with its month of special offers and events

The final day was Saturday, October 7, and Steyning Farmers Market, where it had all started back on September 2, was again abuzz with a mass of people enjoying the sunshine and the superb selection of stallholders. A good crowd gathered to watch the annual Pumpkin Weigh, where Derek Crush was crowned Champion Pumpkin Grower for 2023 with a mighty beast weighing 49 kilos.

Several tasting mornings were also taking place in High Street on Saturday, including Sarah and Justin Brown serving JaJu coffee at Awen Furniture, Amanda Hutton hosting a Cocoa Loco chocolate tasting with Charley Lowe at Vintage & Home, and food tastings at The Sussex Grocer.

Reina Alston, director and vice-chair of Steyning & District Community Partnership, said: "Some wonderful times have been enjoyed over the past few weeks, with great festival events and superb special offers from various local businesses, all taking place within Steyning and the surrounding district. We have enjoyed some great events and, luckily, so good weather, too, which always helps, especially our outdoor events.

"The Artisan Bakehouse baking courses were very popular, with many fully booked. There were great walks taking place, including The Tasty Countryside Walk headed up by Hilary Winter and Ian Alexander, taking in The Fox at Small Dole and Tottington Manor at Edburton for refreshment stops. The wonderful Pubs & Breweries of Steyning Walk was led with a great sense of humour by our local historian, Dr Janet Pennington, and there was the ever-popular Bramber Brooks Flora & Fauna Walk with naturalist Brianne Reeves.

"Also taking place were three pub quizzes, at Chequer Inn, The Star and The Fountain, not to mention the outstanding Charity Coffee & Cake Morning for Chestnut Tree House children's hospice at Ashurst Village Hall, which this year raised £830. Together with collecting such a wonderful donation, it was such a fun and happy morning, with delicious cakes baked by local individuals and donated by local businesses, together with coffee generously given by JaJu Coffee. All this, of course, only brought to fruition because of the volunteers who made it all happen, headed up by Helen from Sakala.

"As always, thanks are due for the support of our wonderful sponsors and, of course, the hard work of our volunteers, who just 'keep going' and make up the committee. Sorry to see it all end again but already looking forward to next year!"