The sight of the Pearly King and Queen of Harrow in full pearly suits caused several shoppers to do a double take, as they came out of Waitrose in Gillingham where they were collecting on behalf of Home-Start Blackmore Vale (formerly North Dorset).

The Pearly King and Pearly Queen, David and Paula Hemsley, now live in Mere but the Pearly King’s grandmother, a Pearly Queen, originally came from Harrow.

Paula married into the Pearly Tradition of carrying out charitable work, and the pair meet regularly with other Pearly Kings and Queens in Covent Garden in London.

Caroline Salt, a Trustee of Home-Start, collected with them and thanked them both for giving up a whole day to help the charity and also thanked the manager of Waitrose for kindly letting the charity collect on such a busy day.

The Pearlies collected just over £400 which  will go towards the cost of funding a volunteer for a year. ‘A huge thank you to all those who so kindly donated and another to Waitrose Gillingham who has been giving us greatly needed financial support at Home-Start Blackmore Vale for a couple of years,’ said Caroline.

For more information about Home-Start please go to https://homestartblackmorevale.org.uk