Hungry customers queued round the corner for the ultimate buttery Good Friday treat - some of Britain's most delicious hot cross buns. A massive queue formed outside Raven's bakery in Brighton on Friday morning as people eagerly looked to get their hands on their famous seasonal delicacies.

It's long been a tradition in the East Sussex city to wake up early to buy the sweet-spiced, raison-filled Easter bun every Good Friday. Sarah Turner, 48, from Portslade, in Brighton, and her 14-year-old daughter, Hollie, were up with lark to get their hands on some buns.

Sarah explained: "I've been coming every year since I was a child. They're just so moist and juicy - really tasty", Sarah said.

"We don't eat hot cross buns from supermarkets, only Raven's. There are queues most days, but I only ever come on Good Friday."

One bun lover was queueing from 6.30am. The man, who has lived in Brighton for 30 years, said: "By the time Raven's opens at 8am, the queue snakes round the corner and up the road.

"We have been coming for years and years - Raven's buns are legendary. We met people in the queue who had come from Worthing, Guildford and London.

"I met one man in the queue whose grandad would take him to get them 30 years ago. Then his dad would get them. Now he's taken up the gauntlet of waking up at silly o'clock to get them.

"There must be some secret ingredient - they're really fluffy, much nicer than shop bought. Someone turned up with a wheelbarrow to get a shed load. I think they were from the church."

Although Easter itself is prime time for hot cross buns, the bakery has actually been selling them every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday since February, selling more as the days get longer and the evenings lighter.

But on Friday morning the line was around the block as dough-loving diners waited patiently for their turn at the front of the queue at the bakery in Ditchling Road.

The shop sells thousands of hot cross buns across the Easter weekend. Maggie Raven, manager at Raven's Bakery, said: "It is a tradition for people to come here every year!"

Thomas Rocliffe, a 14th-century monk, is widely credited as making the very first hot cross bun - although the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Saxons all baked a type of bun to mark the changing seasons.

A sweet, fruity bake bearing a cross on top, the buns were given to the local poor on Good Friday. This Easter treat so pleased the recipients that word soon spread, and efforts were made across the country to imitate these cakes.

By the 19th century, hot cross buns were commonly eaten over the Easter religious Christian holiday to symbolise the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday on the cross.

Now often sold all year round, these sticky fruit buns now come in an assortment of flavours, from chocolate and caramel to orange and cranberry.