Excited crowds welcomed the start of Ricky Week with the annual carnival parade on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Decorated floats assembled outside of the St Joan of Arc School in the early afternoon in preparation for the parade.

The procession then made its way through the High Street, Station Road, Northway and Church Street before finishing at the Bury Grounds where a fete was held by the Batchworth Sea Scouts.

Miss Rickmansworth and her two attendants were then crowned before the festival was officially opened by chairman of the council.

The week will be brought to a close with the Rickmansworth Canal Festival at the weekend, which organisers believe could attract around 30,000 people.

The Rickmansworth Festival started as a purely canal-based festival in 1993, incorporating the aquadrome as the main location for land-based activities.

The festival is now a well-established celebrations of the waterways and the environment, held on the third weekend of May each year.

The festival is open between 10.30am and 10.30pm on Saturday, and 10.30am and 5.30pm on Sunday.

Barbara Owens, from the Rickmansworth Society, which organises the event, said: “I think Ricky Week is very important because everyone is involved.

“The shops are involved, the schools are involved.”