KIDNAPPING a mayor, dressing up in silly clothes or enduring the pain of having hair removed from various parts of the anatomy were just some of the crazy things south Wiltshire got up to on Friday, all in the name of Children in Need.

The Salisbury area raised thousands of pounds and helped Wiltshire as a whole set a new record, with the county's total at the weekend standing at more than £400,000.

Radio Wiltshire said two call centres in the county were kept busy taking pledges, and by late afternoon, they were hopeful that last year's total would be exceeded.

On Monday, Radio Wiltshire confirmed that the county's total - with more money still to come in - had reached £402,000.

Mayor of Salisbury Bobbie Chettleburgh will not forget Children in Need day, as she was kidnapped on Friday morning about 11am by two hooded kidnappers.

She was whisked away to a special room at the parking services headquarters, in Pennyfarthing Street, where she was detained for four hours, until sufficient money had been collected to allow her to go free.

The kidnapping was organised by staff at the council's parking services department, who freed the mayor in time for her official duties.

Firefighters based at Boscombe Down took to the streets of Amesbury dressed as superheroes and performed a superhuman effort, collecting £1,512.20p in just a few hours calling in on Amesbury pubs, businesses and stopping people in the street.

The proprietor of the Milford Hall Hotel, in Salisbury, promised his staff he would have his head shaved if they managed to collect £500.

He was held to his word, as staff had collected the target figure within three hours and went far beyond it by the end of the day.

Portman Building Society staff donned '70s gear and had a good physical workout on exercise bikes in their main office, raising more than £235 in the process.

Sponsored head-shaving, leg-waxing and dancing to rock 'n' roll music was the programme of events at the Stonehenge Inn, Durrington, while staff at Milford House nursing home opted to wash cars for a price and donated all their takings to the fund.

Doing what they enjoy doing as a hobby helped Wiltshire Schools raise £1,100 when they staged a tae kwon do activity evening at the Tidworth Leisure Centre.

The city's HSBC bank acted as a collecting centre for Salisbury and a spokesman said on Monday that, so far, £1,735 had been received.