An open-air theatre production in memory of Devizes mother-of-two Jackie Hale raised £1,128 on Friday night.

The professional touring production of Moliere’s Tartuffe played to a full house in the garden of Marion and Ian Gordon-Finlayson at Ogbourne Maizey, near Marlborough.

The money will go to the William Budd Endowment Trust at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, where Mrs Hale, 52, from Coate, near Devizes, was treated before her death from cancer earlier this year.

Marion Gordon-Finlayson said: “Jackie worked with my husband at Wadworth and we were shocked by her death so we both decided that this evening would be for her.”

Mr and Mrs Gordon-Finlayson started mounting productions in their back garden five years ago and the Miracle Theatre Company from Redruth in Cornwall has played there every summer since.

Mrs Gordon-Finlayson said: “This production was the best ever. We had 160 people and raised £1,128. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s worth it.

“We started this up after we had been to see a play at Aldbourne village hall and it was such a friendly experience, with everyone talking to each other, that we wanted to do something similar in Ogbourne Maizey.

“We don’t have a village hall so we decided to hold the play in the back garden. The people from Miracle are all professional actors and the plays are so clever and so entertaining.

“We give them all a bed for the night and a hot meal and they perform this superb play. We have a really good following now, with people phoning up and booking their seats months in advance.”

Adrian Hale, Jackie’s husband, expressed his gratitude to the couple for holding the evening in his late wife’s memory.

He said: “I can’t thank them enough for doing this. I know Jackie would have been touched by it and it is such a good cause.”