A seasonal auction held at Porthleven harvested a good amount of cash to help keep the port lit up this winter.

Held at the Atlantic Inn, the harvest festival auction raised £779, which has since been made up to £1,000 thanks to businessman Simon Tolson from |Above Beach Cottages and Porthleven Holidays.

This will go towards the general maintenance and upkeep of the year-round lights display, but at this time of the year it will particularly be used for the Christmas lights display.

The strings of lights that hang around the harbour require 900 bulbs, at £4 each to replace, and many were damaged in last winter’s storms.

This year the clock tower of Porthleven Institute is also due to be lit up, for the first time.

Judy Collins, from the lights committee, said: “Thank you to everyone that turned out on the night. Without them it wouldn’t be any good at all.

“It’s only a local event. In these hard times people are hard pressed to know what to spend the money on.”

Hosted by Leigh and Adrian Santi, the event was opened by Roger Taft, chairman of the lights committee.

Auctioneering double act Peter Collins and Steve Nicholas kept the bids coming, while Gavin Lang collected the money.

Diane Churchman managed the raffle and collected prizes from people, and Fi Buxton made sure all the tickets were sold on the night.

Judy said: “I’d like to thank the local businesses for all their donations and the support through the year, keeping the lights go.”

She also thanked everyone who made cakes to auction on the night, saying it was “like the Bake Off”, and in particular Sandy Perkins of the An Mordros Hotel who made “beautiful” cakes and buns.

Mr Santi made a “leaning tower of profiteroles” that not only did he donate to the auction, but then bought back himself and shared between the pub.

A large amount of vegetables were donated to the auction, many by Steve Nicholas, and Judy laughed: “I’m sure there were a lot of people going home with marrows that won’t even fit in their oven!”

There were also “beautiful” bracelets from Denise.