THE musical talent and cookery skills of people in the Cotswolds have been celebrated at two fundraising events.

Run by the North Cotswolds Rotary Club together both fundraisers have made £1,600 for charities.

The first, the annual youth and music concert at St Edward’s Church, Stow, featured seven talented youngsters and made an impressive £1,300 for the Rotary Foundation.

During the concert the audience was treated to varied music, with Felix Hughes, aged 16, on the cello opening the concert, followed later in the programme by his brother Jed Hughes, 13, on the double bass.

A student from the Cotswold School, Grace Clare, 14, playing the clarinet, demonstrated her musicality with a number of short pieces before Ziying Zhang, 13, on the piano showed his musical career to date heralds a successful future.

And finally 17-year-old Laurence Padfield, baritone, sang several challenging and entertaining pieces beautifully.

The second event was the Great Cotswold Charity Bake Off at the Cotswold School, which organisers said provided a mouth-watering array of cakes and savouries for visitors to enjoy.

More than 30 different dishes were entered, and competitors and visitors were able to sample up to eight before voting for their top three.

The overall winner was Chris Wyman with her lemon meringue pie, and the runner-up was last year’s winner, Stevie Parker, who created a lemon and poppy seed cake with a stunning display of red poppies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

In third place was Mollie Wise, and amongst those commended for her Sweetie Cupcakes was young Marina Hellicker.

“We are very grateful to all who took part,” said rotarian Phil Randall who organized the event. “Again this year the standards were high, and everyone seems to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves."

The £300 raised at the event will go to support local charities.