FOUR of Calne's oldest residents arrived early to turn on the town's Christmas lights on Friday December1, but the illuminated Santa was late.

The sound of bugles and drums accompanied the lightshow, as Calne's oldest resident, Bert Hardy, who will be 101 on December 16, was accompanied by Jim Smellie, 98, Leonard Crocker, 91, and Conny Jones, 84.

The town hall and Bank House were bathed in light while timers turned on other lights around the town.

Unfortunately, Santa's timer had been set to 6am, so he put in an appearance a little late.

While Mr Hardy is something of a celebrity in Calne, Mrs Jones is not quite so used to the limelight: "I couldn't believe it when they rang me up and asked me, I couldn't speak, talk about gob-smacked," she said.

Town Centre Manager, Mitch Roberts, was pleased with the event.

"It goes from strength to strength, we're constantly improving the lights and it's nice to get so much support from the community," he said.

When the switch was flicked to bring Corsham's lights to life, there were many people who breathed a sigh of relief.

The town council has spent most of this year battling to make sure the Christmas lights were in working order.

Councillors agreed to take on the illuminations after the chamber of commerce said it could no longer do them. They warned it would need a mammoth effort to fund repairs to the lights.

But the businesses raised enough money and even the rain held off until Major General Tony Raper from the Defence Communication Services Agency had performed the official switch-on.

He said: "This is the first time I have ever done this.

"It's an occasion for the children, the not-so-small children and the big children just like me."