FIONA Scruton, landlady of the Lamb Inn at Urchfont, succeeded in keeping silent for three hours on Friday and earned nearly £600 for the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity.

Mrs Scruton was challenged by regulars at the popular village hostelry to keep her mouth shut during the busiest evening of the week.

She said: "Nobody believed I could do it least of all me. I must have gone through half a dozen notepads, though, as I can't not communicate with people. That's just not me.

"I am delighted we made so much money for Marie Curie. I named that charity because I have suffered from cancer though I have been given the all-clear now."

If Mrs Scruton had failed on Friday, she would have faced a forfeit of dressing up as a scarecrow for the village's annual scarecrow festival.