AN open garden day held in Handforth, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge and one garden in Knutsford, has helped raised £11,800 for charity.

The money, which is likely to total £12,000, when remaining monies are collected, will go to Wilmslow Wells for Africa.

The charity organisers, who are based at St John's Church, welcomed 450 visitors to the gardens with BBC Radio Manchester, doing a live broadcast from two of the gardens at Orchard Green, Alderley Edge.

The fundraising included refreshments provided by some of the17 home owners. who opened their gardens to members of the public. Additional funds were also raised by volunteers and local businesses who provided plated teas at St John's.

The charity's chairman Helen Battilana said: "We were fortunate to have such warm and sunny weather on the day, sandwiched between rain on the previous evening and following morning.

"The charity’s trustees are thrilled to have reached the milestone of £1 million of fund-raising during the 31 years since Brenda Mottershead founded the organisation.

"Being run entirely by volunteers and with no administrative staff to pay, we have been able to spend 99.2 per cent of our income directly on projects to provide sources of clean water to rural African communities.

"It amounts to 190 projects in 16 different counties having been completed to date, including some deep boreholes and rainwater harvesting & storage equipment."