A Castle Hedingham pub raised almost £1000 pound for charity this weekend as one barman volunteered to have his back and chest waxed. 

The Bell Inn held their 12th annual beer festival over the weekend, and at the start Josh Wood claimed that if the team could gather £500 they could wax his untamed body hair. 

By Sunday lunch time the team had surpassed their target, choosing to donate to The Smile of Arran and Mind. 

Josh said: "I turned up to work on Friday, just as the beer festival was getting started, someone made a joke about shaving my head, there was no chance of that, but I said I would do my chest and back.

"Within a couple of minutes everyone was off gathering sponsorship and by that point it was too late for me to back out.

"I had my chest waxed once at school as well, at least this time it was done professionally, still quite painful though."

Smile of Arran is a charity close to the hearts of everyone in the area, Arran Tosh, 13, was a Hedingham School student when he died in 2014 days after a brain tumour was found when he went for an eye test.

Pub manager, Kylie Turkoz-Ferguson, said: "The fundraising was very impromptu, we had no plans to do any fundraising but when Josh offered it really began to rack up some support.

"The whole weekend was wonderful, it had a great atmosphere and was very much enjoyed by the whole community. 

"Josh decided to do the fundraiser on Friday night and some of the staff walked around the festival trying to get some support and before we knew it we had beaten the initial target."

Josh's sister-in-law, Madi Doe, also spent the weekend fundraising, by selling homemade cakes and sausage rolls, ahead of her charity sky-dive for Mind and The Smile of Arran.