Pupils from Ramsey Junior School put on their dancing shoes this week for the annual Plough Monday celebrations.

Pupils and teachers processed from the school, in Station Road, across to Abbey Green to take part in a morning of dancing together with the Ouse Washes Molly group.

A short plough blessing ceremony was also held by Rev Canon Richard Darmody before pupils from Hawthorn Community Primary School, Kettering, arrived to dance with pupils from Ramsey.

This year’s event was sponsored by the Ramsey Million Partnership.

Michelle Juniper, deputy head teacher, said: “It’s an event that the children really look forward to.”

Plough Monday is the first Monday after Epiphany, or Twelfth Night. The day was traditionally an important ritual for agricultural workers in the east, providing the opportunity to make some money at a difficult time of year.

In medieval times it is believed that ploughboys were supposed to return to work on Plough Monday, the start of the new ploughing season. Instead the plough was paraded through the streets with the aim to extort money from the wealthy landowners.