Bigbury Community Choir has reformed as a sea shanty choir, now performing traditional folk songs.

The shanty crew is composed of 20 men and women local to Bigbury Bay, with one man being 92.

Musical Director Apple Taylor said: “As Bigbury Community Choir, we performed traditional acapella Christmas songs during the festive season, but we realised that we didn’t want to stop singing, so why not make it an all-year-round occurrence!”

“When we were rehearsing one evening at Bigbury Memorial Hall, the acoustics whilst we sang were incredible, and from then I knew we would sound amazing singing sea shanties.”

The choir already has some gigs lined up at the Kingsbridge Show and the Tom Crocker Day festival on Bigbury Beach.

To honour the RNLI’s bicentenary (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), the RNLI has been invited to give a presentation and have a stand at the Kingsbridge Show in September.

The newly reformed choir is looking for ways to incorporate the RNLI into their performance to show their support for the charity that saves lives at sea.

The choir also received a visit for a workshop from former members of the shanty crew ‘The Old Gaffers’ who have recently reformed as ‘The Mizzen Link’.

Apple said: “The choir is such a fun group of people, we've got a way to go, but having two Summer gigs already in the bag is going to give us major motivation to make some brilliant music to share.”