CROWDS in Calne received a blast from the past on Sunday as the voices of 17 town criers rang loud and clear through the town centre.

The sixth running of the Calne Town Crier competition on the Beach Terrace saw the criers and their escorts compete in full regalia with Peder Nielsen from Bromyard in Herefordshire coming out on top.

Mr Nielsen received the highest marks from judges, film director Christopher Miles and local businessman David Daltrey, who assessed the vocal disciplines of volume, clarity, diction and inflection.

Each town crier completed two cries, the first their own town cry and the second along a pre-arranged theme which this year was the 1985 film Back to the Future.

The cult sci-fi film saw the time-travelling characters visit 2015 and famously predicted the existence of hoverboards.

Calne’s own town crier, Mark Wylie, 48, was on hosting duties as competition rules prevent him from participating for fairness.

He said: “It’s really fun; it’s my sixth year of doing this and hosting is great because there’s no pressure.

“You have to do a cry as well, it’s called the benchmark and it helps the judges know what to expect, but it’s nice and I get given a microphone so I don’t have to shout all day.

“We had a good turnout all day, the nice thing about it is people will sit at the tables and chairs and some will come for five or ten minutes so we have this gentle flow of crowd.”

The competition is run in conjunction with Frome’s, which takes place the previous day, with overall winner, also Mr Nielsen, receiving a trophy.

Mr Wylie won the Frome competition on the Saturday with his own town cry and a second free choice cry themed around the oddities in the English language.

He said: “It’s proving very popular. We combine our competition with Frome’s the day before and created a new trophy for the whole weekend. All four of the scores are added up over the weekend and that attracts a lot of people.”

There were also prizes for the smartest presented criers, judged by Calne Mayor Howard Marshall, with Tony and Jenny Evans from Nailsea picking up all three awards for best dressed crier, escort and couple.

And with the event coinciding with Father’s Day, junior Calne town crier, Harrison Wylie, 11, also put his vocal chords to the test against two other young criers.