Sherborne In Bloom!

It’s the beginning of August and the hanging baskets around the town are now in their prime. Take a look at these magnificent specimens in Long Street and Cheap Street:

Thanks to the businesses and householders who have done so much to produce this wonderful display!

This year we completely changed our annual gardening competition by asking people to enter and organising a visit to each entrant by a panel of judges. The annual Sherborne in Bloom newsletter, supported by a grant from the Simon Digby (Memorial) Trust, was delivered to every house producing a slightly overwhelming number of entries. We were nonetheless delighted.

Little did we know what a mammoth task we had set ourselves! Organising the whole judging competition took weeks and would culminate in a whole week of judging visits. On some days there was more than one team of judges going out to judge — all day!

During the judging week our judges looked at more than 80 front and back gardens, 143 allotments, 90 homes in the Quarr Lane Park and 120 businesses, pubs and restaurants. Those who entered the competition told us how pleased they were to show the judges around.

Awards were presented to the winners at a presentation ceremony at the Butterfly House, Castle Gardens on judging day, Tuesday 13 July.

Jean Gillingham receives judging award from Mrs Wingfield-Digby with Mayor Jane Smith looking on

For a complete list of the prizewinners in Growing for a Gold, click here.

Caroline Rowland, organiser of Sherborne in Bloom, would like to thank the following people. We are indebted to Aurelie Ryser, our Douzelage student from Granville who designed the wonderful judges scoring sheets and so much more. We were so appreciative of the commitment and dedication of our judges and photographers, Betty Deavin, Brian Haigh and Keith Lane, who weathered so well the scorching hot days.

We also received tremendous support from our sponsor and head judge Louise Burks of Castle Gardens who hosted all the lunches and half-time refreshments for the judges and photographers. Our judges thought it a real treat to be served with the most delicious cream teas for elevenses!

Grateful thanks to all of our judges: Louise Burks, Brian King, Tim Stiles, Janet Vincent, Jean Gillingham, Mary MaClean, Katherine Vickery, Christine Stones, Malcolm Mills, Steve Fry, Mary Brodie, Elaine Spencer-White, Paul Newman, Cordelia MacFarlane and Sally Westlotorn. Thanks also to Gillian Langham of Sherborne Town Council for showing our judges around the allotment sites.

Thank you to all Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club members for their efforts throughout the year especially Gillian Gunner who also runs our fantastic website.

And finally a huge thanks to Paul Newman, Ady, Simon, Alex and Colin from the Town Council for keeping our town looking so good all year round.

Tuesday 13 July was judging day for Sherborne In Bloom.

Our judges were Kim Parish and Martin Abrahams and we treated them to a tour of the town designed to show them why Sherborne deserves another gold!

In contrast to the previous few days the weather was cloudy, windy  and rainy but that didn’t stop us getting around .

The tour started at Sherborne Station and proceeded through Pageant Gardens, up Digby Road and into the Abbey.

After visiting Cheap Street and a few locations in between the judging party stopped at the Quarr Local Nature Reserve which is blooming at this time of year.

After a busy two and a half hours ending at the Old and New Castles Kim and Martin were then taken to a reception at the Butterfly House at Castle Gardens where they met all the Growing for a Gold winners and were treated to a delicious cream tea!

Thanks to all the hard-working gardeners of Sherborne who make the town look so beautiful, not just on judging day but all the year round.

Thanks also to Louise and Mike Burks of Gardens Group, our main sponsors of Sherborne in Bloom, for their tremendous support and their hospitality on the day.