Hundreds of Hadleigh children were thrilled to get an early visit from Santa on a horse drawn sleigh this evening.

As children could not visit Santa in his grotto this year, the elves at Hadleigh Food Bank Charity arranged a special visit so the town's youngsters would not miss out too much.

As the reindeers were busy getting ready for the big Christmas Eve delivery, Hadleigh's Father Christmas, who is good friend of Elliott Rix and the foodbank, arranged for two wonderful white horses, Jack and Jill, to pull the sleigh through the towns streets to deliver 700 presents to all ages.

Santa told Nub News: "It is nice to bring some joy into people's lives after the year we have all had.

"This is a good practise run for me and we have had help from lots of good people."

After the presents were all safely wrapped in Covid safe environment by food bank volunteers, servicemen from RAF Wattisham stored them and kept the sleigh supplied by Layer Marney Horse Drawn Carriages, went round Hadleigh.

The first stop off was outside the Co-op on the High Street where dozens of excited youngsters and their parents were handed age appropriate presents donated by a wide range of companies and individuals.

After getting their presents the throng disappeared, and you just knew the children were dying to rip off the wrapping to see what they had got, but it looked as if most stayed good and will still get visit from Santa on Christmas Eve.

Hadleigh Foodbank Charity Trustee, and co-founder, Angela Gregg, said: "It had been heartbreaking to see so many youngsters miss out on things this year, so we decided this would go some way to make up for that.

"They can't go and see Santa like they usually would, so we thought of doing this. It is outdoors, we have all sorts of protocols and precautions in place with sanitiser, space and face coverings.

"We are also so grateful to all the people that have donated presents the children can enjoy."

Meanwhile, Ruth Lucas, the charity's chair, paid tribute to fellow volunteer Sasha Lawrence who has stepped down as a trustee due to increasing personal commitments.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sasha who still volunteers and does a fabulous job for the charity and still delivers to seven or eight families every week."