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.

Venue
Butterfly House, Castle Gardens, New Road

Opening Times
9:00am – 5:00pm Mon-Fri 12-16 July and Sun 18 July

On Display
Photos taken by Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club
Gardens in ‘Growing for a Gold’ competition

Admission Free

Plenty of parking – come along and see more fabulous photos like this:

The South West Market Town Awards are part of the National Market Town Awards which each year celebrate the great variety of volunteer-led projects which are helping to regenerate and sustain small towns throughout the country. The Awards are organised by Action for Market Towns, the national organization with over 400 towns in membership which supports the regeneration and vitality of small towns.

Here Gillian Gunner, chairman of the Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club, receives the award from AMT board member, Peter Godfrey, on behalf of Sherborne In Bloom.

The prize was awarded for ‘… the regeneration of Sherborne station in partnership with community groups, young people, business and South West Trains. The idea was to bring light and colour to the dark and dingy platform 2  of the station, promote the town and provide passengers, tourists and local residents with a permanent display of local art.’

The judges were very impressed by the impact and low cost of the project and its applicability to any number of venues both within Sherborne and beyond.

Traders from across Normandy arrived with their stalls and took over Cheap Street, selling a delicious array of French foods and goodies including bread, pâtisserie, charcuterie, cheeses and, of course, wines… and much more.

We were there with a stall selling Sherborne In Bloom shopping bags (sacs à provisions) which were priced in both Euros and pounds sterling.

Many of the French stall-holders bought shopping bags to take home as souvenirs.

The event was organised with the support of Sherborne Chamber of Trade and Commerce and Sherborne Town Council. A financial contribution was made in support of Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance.

Long Live l’Entente Cordiale!

In the South West In Bloom Presentation Event at the Westland Leisure Complex in Yeovil, Sherborne was awarded the highest prize in its class: a Gold award and the Preece Cup.

In what was termed the largest ‘In Bloom’ event ever to be held in the country, 450 delegates from around the South West region gathered together to see who had been awarded what in the 2009 regional contest.

Pictured here are the Sherborne contingent who attended the awards ceremony, holding the certificates and cup that we took away. On the right is Barry Cruse, one of the two judges who marked us in the competition.

The Preece Cup is a major award for the town in a very competitive category.

Caroline Rowland

Caroline Rowland, the lead co-ordinator for Sherborne In Bloom, was delighted with the town’s achievement:  ‘So many people have worked so hard for our entry this year and I am delighted that their efforts have been so richly rewarded.

A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who took part – we can be rightly proud of our town and its hard-working and gifted gardeners! Now that we know that Sherborne is up there with the winners in the region, our task for 2010 is to stay there…’

Preece Cup

Sherborne’s success came in the year that the judging criteria were changed to include more emphasis on environmental responsibility.

In their appraisal of the town’s entry, the judges mentioned our impressive heritage, our recycling and environmental credentials, the excellent wildlife areas and the contribution made by so many individuals and groups within the community.

In these difficult times it is great to have some good news to share.

Well done, Sherborne!

Now here’s a good idea! Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (of River Cottage fame) is launching this initiative called ‘Landshare’ which puts people who want to cultivate land in touch with those who have land available. He’s doing this via Channel 4 TV which broadcasts his cookery/country lifestyle programme.

Hugh’s idea is simple. There are more and more people who want to grow their own food, but there are long waiting lists for allotments. So, find more land. People who have gardens that they would like to share or landowners with unused land could satisfy the demand by making their land available.

The TV programme has featured several examples of how this can work. In one case, a woman whose garden was too big for her to manage allowed another woman to come in and work it in exchange for a share of the vegetable crop. And there are other examples of people ‘guerilla gardening’, planting vegetables in untended public spaces.

Find out more about this excellent idea at http://landshare.channel4.com/

At last week’s South West In Bloom awards presentation, one of the prizes that Sherborne came back with was this splendiforous cup which was awarded to the Gryphon School for their contribution to Sherborne In Bloom.  Towns previously awarded this cup include Camborne, Midsomer Norton, Weston-Super-Mare, Seaton, Chulmleigh and Exmouth. Sherborne’s name can now be engraved alongside this worthy company.

So what did the school do to gain such prestigious recognition? Well, here are a few candid snaps of the youth of Sherborne getting stuck in:

The kids planted numerous adopt-a-plots around the town, including Bristol Road, Coldharbour, Digby Road, Kitt Hill, Sherborne Station, Sherborne Police Station and more. And they also painted a mural in Newland South car park and posters for Sherborne Station.

The judges were clearly impressed by all this child labour.

Well done, school! Top marks!

We also won the Clem Preece Memorial Cup which was awarded to Gryphon School ‘for outstanding school effort supporting Britain In Bloom criteria’.

And we won the Michael McGahey Trophy ‘for exceptional community effort’.

We were also awarded a certificate in the Neighbourhood Awards category for the planting scheme at Fosters Furlong.

Pictured here (l to r) are Sally Westlotorn, Louise Burks, Caroline Rowland and Valerie Todd who attended the event, holding the awards that Sherborne won.

Thanks and congratulations to all the hard-working gardeners of Sherborne and especially to the pupils and teachers of Gryphon School whose contribution received such deserved recognition! Thanks also to the Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club who photographed the entire project.

Now, let’s get started on 2009

As part of the town’s effort to become a plastic bag-free zone, Sherborne In Bloom is sponsoring its own shopping bags.

These are eco-friendly, biodegradable jute bags and are big enough to carry all your shopping.

Jute is environmentally friendly and when discarded will decompose leaving only valuable nutrients.

Made in India under strict working conditions and transported to this country by ship to avoid air pollution, Jute bags are totally biodegradable using only natural materials and traditional skills to combat a distinctly modern, world pollution problem. Jute bags are extremely durable – one Jute bag will last longer than many thousands of plastic bags and unlike its plastic counterpart, when finally discarded a Jute bag will naturally decompose.

The bags are now available in shops around the town and all proceeds from the bags go to Sherborne In Bloom.

You can get your ‘Sherborne In Bloom’ shopping bag at one of these outlets:

Tourist Information Centre, Digby Road

Sherborne Town Council – Manor House, Newland

Mid West Office Supplies, Cheap Street

Parsons Butchers, Cheap Street

Gryphon School (Lizzie Kingsbury)

Please support Sherborne In Bloom by buying a shopping bag when you see one in the town.

Or why not buy two and give one to a friend?

Let’s all say ‘NO’ to plastic bags!

Do you know of anyone who might be interested?
Contact Caroline c.rowland@sherborne-tc.gov.uk