THE peaceful evening calm of an Oxfordshire village was shattered when more than 10,000 bikers roared into town.

Villagers in Cassington welcomed the motorcyclists with open arms for the annual Cassington Bike Night on Monday.

Bikers took over the village’s single road on their Harleys, Yamahas, Suzukis, Hondas and Triumphs, roaring up and down the stretch.

The event has been organised for some 30 years by volunteers from St Peter’s Primary School PTA, the St Peter’s Church bellringers, the local Woman’s Institute and Cassington Village Hall committee.

Kathryn Humphris, who was one of the organisers, said: “I would say we probably had more than 10,000 bikes – it was our most successful year without a doubt.”

The tradition was started by the British Motorcycle Riders Club Oxford as their annual club membership renewal meeting.

In 2012 it handed organisation to the village. That year’s event welcomed 7,000 bikes and 10,000 bikers and it has grown ever since.

In 2013 the village opened up extra parking spaces and topped all previous years’ attendances with almost 10,000 bikes.

This year’s event was supported for the first time by Goodyear Dunlop and BMW, which both had stands on the village green.